The Shade of Uzu
by defiasstone2
Summary: The village of Whirlpool was destroyed in the third Shinobi war, and the few survivors that weren't wiped off the map were scattered across the entire elemental nations. However, there are those that were not present in the village during the time of its destruction, whether for good reasons or ill. This is one of their stories. Naruto-centric, OC's
1. A shadow of the past

The Shade of Uzu, A Naruto Story:

_It had been almost 16 years since the end of the third Shinobi war that had ravaged the elemental nations for almost a decade. The casualties on all sides were tremendous, and the war seemed never ending to those that were either involved or caught up in it. Several minor hidden villages of ninjas were wiped out in their entirety, including the secretive and feared village of Whirlpool, which was based in a small island chain off the coast of the land of fire.. The village, whilst small had been very well known for its sealing techniques and powerful ninja. _

_As such, when they sided with the village of Konoha in the great war, the great villages of Iwa and Kumo, two of the 5 most powerful villages in the elemental nations allied together to destroy the village, with a force of such magnitude that had never been seen before, including the most powerful of each villages ninja's, known as the hidden shadows or Kages. They mustered almost half of their combined fleets, and set sail, whilst their spies amongst Konoha forces made them believe that they would be attacking on the northern front of the land of fire to draw away any possible support that could besent to aid Uzu._

_Against such a force even the powerful defensive sealing techniques that the Whirlpool village had set up as a defensive measures to stop any ship from landing upon their shores were overcome using powerful earth ninja techniques to build an artificial harbour over the top of the deep reefs that Uzu had placed their seals upon to create their defences. The siege lasted a week, and the losses to the attacking forces were such that when they finally won the battle, and every member of the village had died in battle, even the children were killed or snuck out of the village with retainers and dissappeared into the far reaches of the world, the attackers could only fill a tenth of the boats they arrived with. _

_A year later, the 4th Hokage, known as the yellow flash for his incredible speed technique, effectively ended the war by felling over 400 enemy ninja in a single battle using his signature technique, the opposing villages quickly sued for peace, and the war ended, with Konoha the lauded winners, and the sacrifices of the Whirlpool forgotten by all but a few souls that had managed to evade the destruction. This story tells the tale of one of those survivors, and his quest to restore the glory and heritage of his home village to its former glory once more._

Nobunaga Kage, known more these days by his bingo book name 'the shadow of Uzu' walked surely and slowly through the small village that was on the outskirts of Hi no Kuni. He had not been to the country in almost half a decade, and with good reason. He was still considered a missing ninja of the whirlpool village despite its lack of existence, and as one of the only survivors of the once famed ninja village of Uzu, or the Whirpool hidden village as it was commonly known, his knowledge of the Uzu jutsu and sealing techniques were attractive prizes to the minor villages, and even the great five wouldn't turn down the opportunity if he was captured by their ninja and pumped for information. Shrugging off these rather morbid thoughts, he walked up to the door of the village hall, which served as both the residence and work place of the village mayor and his administrative aides.

The hall also contained the wanted posters and arrest warrants, which was how he got by these days, petty criminals and bandits didn't stand a chance and it was decent pay. Entering inside, he found a few Konoha shinobi there already, dressed up for a mission, and the leader of the four was asking the village mayor for information about something. They were all chuunin and relatively young, so he had no reason to worry about being spotted, the descriptions of him in the bingo book were vague and hazy with only a photo of him from his genin days and none of them were old enough to have fought with him 20 years ago. As such he walked past them and to the board, which he perused half-heartedly, there didn't seem to be any new bounties, and the ones that were up he knew were obsolete, he had already completed most of them and brought the bounties to other villages.

His keen hearing caught the words of one of the leaving chuunin, and it caused him to freeze in place as a word that he had thought would never be mentioned in idle conversation again. "We better find these bandits quickly; the last thing I want to miss is the Uzumaki hunt, best part of the October 10th festival, watching the demon squi…' He was cut off by the impact of a fist to his solar plexus, sending him to the floor in a daze. Kage was already striking the next one a debilitating blow to the knee, shattering the bone easily with a chakra infused strike. The two remaining chuunin were reacting now, caught off guard by the attack on their home turf as it were by an unknown shinobi. The shorter of which was reaching into his kunai pouch when Kage roundhouse kicked him with enough force to send him through the open door to the hall and skidding down the street, the man flailing helplessly as he did so.

The last managed to draw the blade at his waist and struck out at Kage, cutting a large gash into his side, and smirked superiorly for a moment, only for it to turn to shock as Kage dissolved into what could only be described as shadows, before a chop to the back of the neck knocked him out almost casually by the real Kage who had appeared from his own shadow. The one whose knee had been injured was grasping for a kunai or other weapon in his pouch when suddenly Kage was there, in front of him, a terrifying mask of shadows clawing and reaching for him, miniature faces of horror and terror flitting across it, as if there were souls of people trapped inside, trying to get out.

"WHERE IS THE UZUMAKI!" The voice was dark, and promised an eternity of pain and suffering, though this did not stop the chuunin trying to be brave. "S-Screw you demon, you are just like the brat, Konoha will deal with both…" He cut off with a scream as Kage wrenched his shattered knee. "TELL ME, OR YOUR FRIENDS WILL DIE SCREAMING IN FRONT OF YOU!" As if to prove a point, one of the other chuunin moaned in obvious pain and the man decided that it would be best to talk. "The Uzumaki brat is in Konoha, there, I told you what you wanted to know, now leave us be!" Kage growled again, tempted to hurt the men further, just for what had been discussed by them before his interference.

The phrasing of the activity 'Uzumaki hunt' sounded barbaric at best, and what was with the repeated references to demons? But regardless of what the connotations of such talk could mean, the fact that one of the Uzumaki house could be alive was not something he could ignore, and if this hunt was on the tenth of the month, he had less than two days to reach Konoha, which whilst also dodging patrols and infiltrating past the vaunted Konoha security systems would be no mean feat. With that in mind, he performed the shushin jutsu without handseals such was his experience with the jutsu, and disappeared into roiling shadows that leapt from the floor to claim him, leaving a downed Konoha team and a terrified mayor who was hiding behind his desk, in case the mystery shinobi decided that he wanted to come after him next.

Time Skip: two days

Location: Konoha

Naruto ran as fast as he could, something that he was used to doing nowadays. Knowing what day it was, he had done his best to be back inside the orphanage in time, but the matron had closed and locked the gates as he ran up, claiming that 'a night outside would make him more punctual.' The blatant truth of it was that she didn't like him, like most of Konoha's citizens, though for what reason he wasn't sure, and none of them would tell him anything other than he had killed their families and was a terrible demon, which made no sense, as he knew he hadn't killed anyone. Though this knowledge was the only constant he could remember in the 11 years of surviving he had managed so far.

Not that it mattered he thought wryly as he dodged another drunken lunge from a villager, ducking into a side street that he knew became very narrow about half way down its length so that only one person could pass through at a time comfortably. The mob following him was closing, though he knew he had managed to escape for now as he dived through the narrow point, ending it with a roll that brought him back to his feet and running, as the point in question became clogged with people all trying to barge through at once to get at him. Using the precious time he had been given, he headed for the slums, the people there were a lot nicer to him, despite their usually less than honest occupations, none of them had raised a hand against him, and even hid him on occasion when the crowds became too much for him to escape from.

Just as he thought he was about to make it, something slammed into him with the force of a cannonball, sending him flying into the street wall with a shout of pain as two of his ribs cracked. There standing over him was a man in a ninja uniform and wearing a chuunin flak jacket, snarl visible on his face as he raised a short blade over his head. "The demon thinks he gets to escape does he? Not today you don't… feel free to scream, it will make it that much more enjoy.., urgh!" The man cut off as a blade similar to the one he was currently wielding embedded itself through his abdomen. Behind him was stood a figure that almost seemed cloaked in darkness itself, bloody blade dissolving into the same type of shadows as he lowered his hand. The mob had used this time to navigate the passage and was drawing up down the street warily, seeing the injured chuunin on the floor their mutterings became more worried and urgent.

The cloaked figure ignored them; instead dropping to his knees and raising his hand to Naruto's injuries, green light like the nice men at the hospital used to heal him used emanating from his hand. The voice caught him off guard, and would have scared him if the man hadn't already saved him and was healing him of his broken bones. "Are you the Uzumaki they call Naruto?" Naruto nodded hesitantly and was shocked when the man then reached out with his free hand and gestured for him to take it. "I am Nobunaga Kage, and I am an ally of your clan from many years ago. Take my hand and we shall leave here to somewhere safe." Naruto couldn't believe it, this man knew about his family? Without having to think a moment further he reached up and grasped as much of the man's large hand as he could with his own small digits.

Everything went black for a moment before he found himself with the man in his orphanage room, bare as it was it was something he could actually say was his own. The cloaked man was rummaging in his cloak for something as Naruto finished getting his bearings. Leaping to his feet he performed his best bow to the man before expressing himself verbally. "Ano, Thank you for back there Kage-san, I was in a lot of trouble before you got there. And were you saying you know something about my family! Was that true?" Kage drew out a small scroll of his cloak as he nodded. "It was Naruto, but first I must verify that you are in fact a Uzumaki by blood, not just an unluckily named orphan, I would not wish for you to get your hopes up needlessly."

Naruto nodded in understanding, the number of times that people had given him good news on for it later to come to nothing he was kind of used to it, though the fact the man was testing him before telling him anything false was new. "How are we going to test it Kage-san? I mean, even Hokage-jiji claimed he didn't know who my parents were and that there wasn't a good way to find out, so what's your plan?" Kage paused at the word Hokage, but recovered fairly quickly. "This scroll is blood sealed to the blood of the Uzumaki, as long as you are more than a quarter Uzumaki it should open when you put some of your blood on it." Naruto beamed, this was a chance to find out if he did belong to a clan, a way to get back at all those idiots in the academy that claimed he was nothing but a clan less waste of space! He reached up and swiped a small amount of blood from his still bleeding lip and placed it against the scrolls red seal.

Nothing happened for a moment, and Naruto was about to sigh in disappointment when the seal glowed blue and a complicated inscription became visible round the scroll, and then the seal came unstuck. Naruto was overjoyed, and began jumping up and down with excitement; he was a true Uzumaki, whatever that meant. He stopped when he heard Kage chuckling to himself, the noise turning into full blown laughter as the man shook his head. "I have spent almost two decades searching far and wide, through the dungeons of the elemental nations for even a rumour of a survivor of the Uzumaki clan, and yet, all this time, there was one so close to home, in the land of our allies! Kami does like to play her little games with me." Shaking his head once more, he quieted and then became serious. "But now young heir, you must make a decision, do you wish to learn about your clan and our way of the ninja?" The man could not have said anything else other than perhaps offering ramen to get Naruto interested. "Of course I do, are you going to teach me Kage-sensei?"

The man nodded but spoke once more. "That I will, but to do so, I must take you to your clan's home, which is away from Konoha. This means you would have to leave with me for a year or two, so that you can learn all you can before your return here to become and ninja. I assume you wish to live up to your clan's legacy?" Naruto nodded, if his clan were ninja's then it would only be right to learn about them. "But what about Hokage-Jiji, I am not sure he will want me to just leave the village without him knowing?" Something of a sadistic smile came over Kage's face as he stood. "Don't worry about that Naruto, I know your Jiji from a long time ago, so I will leave him a clone that will have a chat with him about it. I'm sure it will all be okay though, so just get your stuff together." Naruto tilted his head in confusion then nodded his head, if Kage knew Jiji and said it would be fine, everything was okay in his books. Without further ado he rushed around the room, grabbing his few belongings from his created hiding places. He was going to learn and become an awesome ninja, this was great!

Time Skip: 30 minutes

Hiruzen Sarutobi rushed into the orphanage, hoping the report that he had received from a very out of breath hospital attendant was incorrect. According to the reports, an unknown man had appeared during the festival, injured a chuunin and kidnapped Naruto before disappearing somewhere unknown in a flash of darkness. This coincided with the report of a Konoha team being taken out in a village to Konoha's south west, where a man of similar description had questioned them about the boy before disappearing in the same manner only two days beforehand, the distance that he had travelled alone made that an impressive feat. Rushing into Naruto's room, he found the room bare; all of Naruto's little hiding places open for the world to see, emptied of their contents. He reached out with his senses and upon finding the hidden chakra source he moved instinctively, kunai at the man's throat before the man could even begin to react, Killing intent rocketing to massive levels.

The man in front of him seemed calm behind his bone white mask however and began talking as if they were sitting down over drinks instead of being threatened at knife point. "The Uzumaki heir is gone already, and I mean him no harm to him in anyway Hiruzen, which is better than I can say for your village. Also, you might as well put the kunai away; I am but a shade that is here to discuss what is to happen with the heir and his heritage." Sarutobi glared at the man even as he ascertained using his chakra sense that yes it was a clone and that the real man was nowhere nearby. "I don't trust the word of missing ninja Nobunaga, especially one who was exiled from Uzu on the order of the last Uzumaki head. For all I know you will try and turn the boy against us, or worse kill him in petty revenge."

The mask frothed and turned black, an obvious sign of the man's dislike of Sarutobi's accusations. "You know better than anyone alive that I would not raise a blade against the Uzumaki clan, not with my clans own honour at stake. I hold no grudge against them, and I wish to see them grow strong once more, my exile is unimportant in comparison." The man stalked the room for a moment as Sarutobi watched, his anger curbed slightly with the reminder of the blood debt that the Kage clan owed to the Uzumaki for saving the clan during an ambush before the establishment of the ninja villages, when the clans travelled by themselves, and were often targeted by rival clans in an attempt to eliminate them. The rival clans of the Kage had joined together and attacked at high noon, the worst time for the Kage techniques and bloodline, and with the added difficulty of protecting the non-combatants the Kage clan members were in grave danger.

Then from the trees came the warriors of the Uzumaki, their predominately red hair streaming as they brought loud death upon the clans attackers, forcing them to retreat in short order, leaving over half their number dead or captured. To the Kage clans surprise the Uzumaki did not torture or humiliate their captured foes, as many of the clans did back in that time, turning them into servants or even worse, sex objects for breeding as some of the more barbaric clans were known to doing. Instead, the Uzumaki treated the injured of both sides in short order, and then sent out one of the captured members back to his clan, with an offer of parley, and negotiation for the captured ninja's return.

Soon afterwards the Uchia and the Senju clans would settle together in Konoha, bringing people to believe that they began the era that would give rise to the great ninja villages, but it was in fact the Kage, Uzumaki and the two clans they had fought that day, that formed the village of Uzu almost two months beforehand, with all three clans swearing allegiance to the Uzumaki, and the village named in their honour as they were the most numerous of the ninja's out of the clans, and the other clans saw the Uzumaki as the best to head the village as they had no possible history with the other clans that may cause tensions in the villages future.

But, that aside, there was still the fact that Naruto was now in the hands of a non Konoha ninja who did not know of the boys burden, or in fact his lineage at all. "Nevertheless, even if you won't harm him, there is the fact that you are one of the most wanted ninja in the elemental nations, with Iwa village wanting your head almost as much as they wished to have the 4th Hokage's. The last thing Naruto needs is that level of hate directed at him at this age." Kage chuckled wryly and looked at the Hokage disbelievingly.

"You say that, when the boy is chased through the village, locked out of the orphanage he calls home for no good reason, and is threatened with bodily harm, no actually that's not the correct phrase, it was actual torture, by your own ninja? I think that being with me and having to deal with the occasional glory hunter will be a nice break for him." The man stopped pacing and chuckled "Not that it matters whether you approve or not really, we are already gone from the village, and you know what happens to hunter ninja who are sent after me, so I wouldn't bother. What I more want to know is when can I send Naruto back here so he can become a ninja?"

Sarutobi observed him in surprise. "What do you mean? I thought you were going to teach him the way of the Uzu?" Kage shook his head and clarified himself. "I will teach him just that, and as much of the Uzumaki knowledge as I was privy to whilst I am at it. But I refuse to let the Uzumaki simply die out, they must be reborn somewhere, and Konoha is as good a place as any to do that, despite the feelings of the civilians here, it is better than Kumo or Iwa. So therefore he must be a Konoha ninja not a ronin or mercenary." Sarutobi relaxed, Kage would not be able to reveal any of the secrets that he did not yet wish Naruto to know about his heritage, or give him knowledge of his tenant, but at the same time would train him in the way that his mother would have wanted, and return a much stronger ninja because of it.

"There are two more years before his age group enter their final year of academy, so you have until then to train him, I expect him to return by the start of June that year. I also want a report every 6 months, and you are to stay away from Kumo and Iwa, they are those that would most take advantage of you having a student to try and use against you." Sarutobi felt the years falling off him as he dictated the terms of this rather forced training trip, no longer was he the old man, forced to return to work after the tragic events on the night of Naruto's birth that led to the death of his successor, he felt like the commanding officer of Konoha's army, the rightfully feared 'Kami no Shinobi'. Kage nodded "Sounds fair, and I will be around after that, your security is bad enough that they couldn't stop me anyways. See you in two years old man!"

And with that the clone was gone, obviously on its way to report to its master. One of his ANBU guards appeared from under his genjutsu hiding place. "Shall we follow him Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi shook his head; there were other things to deal with. "No Boar, we shall not, Naruto will be safe with him. In the meantime, I want the orphanage staff rounded up; evidently someone has been lying to me about Naruto's well being here. Also, that man in the hospital, have him to Ibiki the moment he is well enough, I think he has falsified his statement about what happened between him and Nobunaga." Two of his ANBU left, and were less than a minute later replaced by two more members, it wouldn't do to leave him under guarded with a rogue ninja possibly still in the village after all. With a sigh he moved off at a more sedate pace this time, there was still paperwork to be done before he could return once more to his home; hopefully he would be able to see his daughter before she went to bed this night yet.


	2. Return of what was taken

The Shades of Uzu- Chapter 2

_A/N:_ Hi everyone, Just a heads up, seeing as i have seen a load of people read this story, and its only been out for a day. This story will contain Naruto at least dating multiple women at the same time in the next couple of chapters. That part of the story actually came first, and it took me years to actually come up with the start to it, so its staying regardless of what people say. On that point, if people could please review, even 1 word review on what you thought of the story would be brilliant, as it at least gives me an idea of general opinion.

Right thats me done, have fun guys and girls!

_Last Time on 'The Shades of Uzu'_

"_There are two more years before his age group enter their final year of academy, so you have until then to train him, I expect him to return by the start of June that year. I also want a report every 6 months, and you are to stay away from Kumo and Iwa, they are those that would most take advantage of you having a student to try and use against you." Sarutobi felt the years falling off him as he dictated the terms of this rather forced training trip, no longer was he the old man, forced to return to work after the tragic events on the night of Naruto's birth that led to the death of his successor, he felt like the commanding officer of Konoha's army, the rightfully feared 'Kami no Shinobi'. Kage nodded "Sounds fair, and I will be around after that, your security is bad enough that they couldn't stop me anyways. See you in two years old man!"_

_And with that the clone was gone, obviously on its way to report to its master. One of his ANBU guards appeared from under his genjutsu hiding place. "Shall we follow him Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi shook his head; there were other things to deal with. "No Boar, we shall not, Naruto will be safe with him. In the meantime, I want the orphanage staff rounded up; evidently someone has been lying to me about Naruto's well being here. Also, that man in the hospital, have him to Ibiki the moment he is well enough, I think he has falsified his statement about what happened between him and Nobunaga." Two of his ANBU left, and were less than a minute later replaced by two more members, it wouldn't do to leave him under guarded with a rogue ninja possibly still in the village after all. With a sigh he moved off at a more sedate pace this time, there was still paperwork to be done before he could return once more to his home; hopefully he would be able to see his daughter before she went to bed this night yet._

_And now, for the new chapter:_

Time Skip: 2 Years

Persona Change: Kotetsu, Chuunin of Konoha

Kotetsu stamped the forms of entry for what must have been the thousandth merchant caravan of the day, his partner Izumo having used his chakra senses to check for possible ninja infiltrators amongst the group, in addition to physically searching the wagons for contraband or illegal materials. It was not a hard job by any means, and they only occasionally got the odd genin level missing ninja coming seeking asylum from their past, and dealing with them was left to the ANBU patrols that covered the walls. He liked to think that they were being useful however, ensuring that the gates of Konoha were ever left unguarded or vulnerable. He was about to settle back into his chair when suddenly Izumo stiffened and his head shifted to the road. Such a reaction would not have caused anyone else to do more than raise an eyebrow, but Kotetsu had worked with Izumo for almost ten years, and each knew the others little reactions to the point that they didn't need to use anything more than a look to convey plans and conversations.

Kotetsu was on his feet and by Izumo's side in the next second, hand on his kunai pouch even as he joked lightly. "What is it Izumo, bunch of Geisha girls coming this way?" Izumo's gaze did not shift even to acknowledge Kotetsu's humoured question, and Kotetsu was about to ask again when Izumo finally spoke. "There is someone approaching alright, but his chakra is off the scales, and it is so wild unlike anything I have encountered." Those words made Kotetsu straighten up as well as he then also began scanning the horizon at the same time as flaring his chakra. He knew it would be a little wasteful, but it was the quickest way to alert the nearest ANBU squad, if this man's chakra was as powerful as Izumo said, then they would need back up very quickly. After another minute a shape appeared on the horizon, and subconsciously both Izumo and Kotetsu flinched in readiness.

After another few seconds, Kotetsu relaxed as his keen eyesight picked out the figures features. "Izumo, it's just a kid, surely you have just read his chakra…" He cut off as even he felt the chakra of the boy that had just appeared next to them in a move of stealth and speed that if Kotetsu hadn't felt it occur, he would not have believed it if someone had told it to him in a bar. Kotetsu turned defensively at the same time as Izumo, weapons being drawn even as they were presented with the once familiar grinning face of the resident container, dressed in simple brown clothes and a voloumous black cloak. The boy then spoke up as if he had just walked up to them as opposed to sneaking up to them in what had seemed a threatening manner. "Hi, Naruto Uzumaki requesting entrance to the village of Konoha, I think the Hokage is expecting me. Wait a minute, why are you guys pointing your weapons at me?" The newly revealed blonde raised his hands in a placating manner as Kotetsu and Izumo had kunai raised and ready to fight.

"The Hokage is expecting you, in three days' time Uzumaki-san, which is why we had not yet alerted the gate guards to your possible arrival." The voice caused all three to look towards the gate, where they found a squad of three ANBU stood in a relaxed stance, headed by a cat masked female ANBU that looked across at the boy in what was obviously a disapproving manner as he reached up and scratched the back of his head in a nervous reflex. "Ahh, I knew I had forgotten something when I decided to be a bit quicker getting here, gomenasai Neko-san, so should I go away and come back in two days?" Kotetsu nearly lost his composure due to his shock at the Uzumaki's inane question, and he saw that he wasn't the only one, with Izumo a lot more obvious in his disbelief. Neko shook her head disbelievingly and responded with no small amount of humour in her voice "No, you can enter now Naruto Hokage-sama will be surprised but pleased I imagine. The last thing I need is you hanging around unnerving the guards for the next two days. I was told that you would have someone else with you?" Naruto shook his head "Kage-sensei is off to chase after some other information he has picked up, he will be back soon I am sure. Shall I meet you at the tower? I doubt Konoha has changed enough to make me lose my sense of direction."

Neko shook her head once more, something that Kotetsu got the feeling that people would be doing a lot more due to the actions of the blonde boy in the future, especially with his seemingly great new powers. "I am afraid you will have to come with me to see him Naruto, the other ANBU haven't been informed of your arrival, and your chakra will unnerve them, not something you need on your first day back." Naruto shrugged then grinned widely at her. "Okay, you better lead on then Neko-chan, wouldn't want for me to leave you behind." Neko merely chuckled and leapt off with Naruto following close behind her, the other two ANBU disappearing in shushins back to their patrol routine leaving the two bewildered chuunin without even the slightest of explanations of what happened.

Izumo spoke first, softly as if expecting he was being watched and listened on by unseen forces. "Kotetsu, I think things are about to get a lot more hectic around here again, and I don't think any infiltrating ninja is going to have anything to do with it." Kotetsu could not help but agree with Izumo, even if he didn't voice it. The Kyuubi container had left as a simple orphan with no skills and hated by the populous, and now he had returned, not seeming to have changed in personality at least.

But now with considerable skills that were beyond normal ninja to use effectively, any villager stupid enough to attack him would be the one in grave danger, not the other way round. Strangely, Kotetsu was not particularly upset at that idea, in fact, it would be a good way of dealing with several of the more idiotic members of the civilian populous that caused trouble for everyone, not only Naruto. The more he thought about it the better it sounded, and he burst out into a happy whistle, ignoring the weird look that Izumo threw him, he would tell him later, and he would find it as funny as he did most likely. Yes, Naruto was back, and hell would probably break loose anytime now.


	3. Discussions

The Shades of Uzu- Chapter 3

A/N: Hi all, Just a quick mention that i will not be updating for a while. I know i know, i am a horrible horrible person, but holidays without internet do that to a story. So yeah, at least two weeks before the next update, sorry guys. Now, on with the story:

_Previously on 'The Shades of Uzu'_

_Izumo spoke first, softly as if expecting he was being watched and listened on by unseen forces. "Kotetsu, I think things are about to get a lot more hectic around here again, and I don't think any infiltrating ninja is going to have anything to do with it." Kotetsu could not help but agree with Izumo, even if he didn't voice it. The Kyuubi container had left as a simple orphan with no skills and hated by the populous, and now he had returned, not seeming to have changed in personality at least._

_But now with considerable skills that were beyond normal ninja to use effectively, any villager stupid enough to attack him would be the one in grave danger, not the other way round. Strangely, Kotetsu was not particularly upset at that idea, in fact, it would be a good way of dealing with several of the more idiotic members of the civilian populous that caused trouble for everyone, not only Naruto. The more he thought about it the better it sounded, and he burst out into a happy whistle, ignoring the weird look that Izumo threw him, he would tell him later, and he would find it as funny as he did most likely. Yes, Naruto was back, and hell would probably break loose anytime now._

New Chapter; Begin!

Time Skip: 20 minutes

Persona Change: Hiruzen Sarutobi, third Hokage of Konoha

Sarutobi looked up from his work, slightly surprised as he felt the speed of the approaching chakra signatures, but smiled fondly as both Neko and Naruto appeared through the window; the pace that Neko was travelling at, and more importantly Naruto was keeping up with was impressive indeed, certainly greater than any of his current genin could manage over such a distance without being out of breath, though he supposed Naruto had always had an advantage in physical training aspects due to his tenant, so that would be expected now he had received suitable one to one training. Looking closer with his experienced eyes Sarutobi noted the steady stance that Naruto set himself in as he set himself straight, one of a warrior now, as opposed to that of the child that had left with Kage two years beforehand. Naruto brushed himself off once, then grinned up at Sarutobi in a way that would have made Sarutobi wish to respond even if he hadn't been doing so already. "Long time no see Jiji, I see the paperwork is as bad as it always is, want to ditch it and grab some ramen?"

Sarutobi chuckled to himself even as Neko struck out like a coiled snake, and Naruto reeled from a clip on the ear with a yelp. Though, Naruto had attempted to dodge the blow Sarutobi noted, so his reflexes and danger sense were developed to the same level as his speed, which was always handy, as it meant that a fighter would not react in a way his body couldn't keep up with, or move at a speed that made his reactions much less efficient due to his pace. Neko spoke angrily at the blonde in front of him, hand still out and ready despite the rest of her posture being strictly professional in front of her leader during such a bizarre meeting. "Naruto-san, show respect to Hokage-sama, just because you have been off gallivanting around with a clan member of yours does not mean that everyone is to be treated as family." Sarutobi raised his hand, silencing the rest of her lecture. He had to admit that he had never imagined Neko to act so, motherly, at Naruto's actions.

The reason why she had become so agitated become obvious a moment later when Naruto spoke up, his face that of a kitten that had just been kicked. "Ah, sorry Neko-chan, it's just that me and Hokage-sama go a long time back, so he is like family to me, and he hasn't told me off for it yet. I will try to be less familiar with those I don't know in future though Neko-chan." Neko's face mask meant that her facial expression was unreadable, but Sarutobi could see in her body posture she was resisting the urge to crack and either hit or hug the boy, he wasn't sure which, and didn't really want to wait to find out which would be carried out. Speaking up before anyone else could interrupt he stood at the same time, moving round the table. "He is right Neko, Naruto here is like a grandson of mine, though admittedly one that I cannot keep in the village no matter what I try." The crack at Naruto's foolishness was lessened when he beckoned the boy to come give him a hug.

He was mildly upset that the boy was now at his shoulder when they met, the time for hugs with another of his close family would be over soon it seemed. Naruto drew back, looking properly contrite this time as opposed to the attempt to get off by being cute like he had pulled on Neko. "Sorry Jiji, but he knew my family and their history, even if he didn't know my parents themselves. And well, now I look back on it I see that I should have waited to make sure he talked to you rather than leaving with a stranger, but it was still the best thing I could have done, I have learned so much with him." Sarutobi's eyes darted to Neko at this point, and knew that she had caught on that there was more about this trip than Sarutobi had let out to anyone who had not been present that night, even one of his top operatives who had proved her loyalty over and over again. "I know you did, reading your letters reassured me of that fact I am not going, but where is Kage? I intended to offer him asylum here, in Konoha so he could rest and continue to help you."

Naruto shrugged dismissively, his hand unconsciously reaching for a small pendant on his cloak. "Sorry Jiji, Kage said he had heard of a red haired girl in grass country with Uzumaki features that had been brought up as an orphan, so he went to go find out if she was an Uzumaki as well, so I would imagine he is going to be busy for the next couple of months at least." Sarutobi sighed at this, Kage had been a loose cannon even when he had been tied down to Uzu, he imagined even if he did join the village when he arrived, he would be like his old student Jiraya, who was out of the village for years at a time looking after his information networks, and building a web of favours and agents to help Konoha should another war erupt.

"Then there is nothing that we can do in that regard at this moment in time apart from await his return. Now, Naruto, whilst you have been away i have been doing some investigating into the orphanage and I found that they were treating not just you but several other children with the care that they were required to do so. So therefore, I have moved you out of the orphanage using some of the money that i have confiscated from them. Your new apartment building was being prepared for you, but because of your early return it is not quite ready for you. As such, you will be a guest of my home for the next two nights, I know that my daughter Reeya has missed your antics over the last two years."

Naruto's smile beamed, such was its intensity. "Thanks Jiji, that's brilliant news, it would be good to meet the rest of my unofficial family." Sarutobi chuckled and then asked on a slightly more serious note. "Where are your belongings, I imagine that Kage likes to travel light, but to leave you with only the clothes on your back wouldn't be like him." Naruto looked confused and then shook his head in understanding. "I imagine he didn't tell you then, wouldn't put it past him, he forgets the most important of things at times. Kage has been teaching me what he knows of seals, and when we were in the ruins of Uzu he accessed several storage rooms that had been hidden well enough to survive the assault and the attention of scavengers, and these had more blood seal scrolls that we could access that taught both of us more about the subject than Kage could have hoped to teach me. So all my belongings, as well as those scrolls are sealed in various places on my clothes that only I can access." Sarutobi nodded, secretly giddy at the thought that had occurred to him whilst Naruto was speaking.

As much as he tried not to force Naruto into following the path of a ninja, a way of life that Sarutobi had always advocated had to be chosen by the individual, not forced onto it as they were in some of the smaller villages if they had a bloodline or ability that was useful to the villages power and prosperity, he could not help but be reassured that the Uzumaki seals, which had been so advanced that infiltrating the village without detection had been impossible to anyone other than the second Tsuchikage, who had been renowned for his infiltration and assassination skills that were the best in history, would soon be defending Konoha if Naruto was anything like his clansmen when it came to skills with seals.

Remembering that Neko was still present and that he would undoubtedly need debriefing after what she had heard in the office so far this morning, it was best to send Naruto away so he could get back to his paperwork before it managed to build up again without him noticing, as it always seemed to on such days. "Right Naruto, well I will let you go to refresh your knowledge of the village and its layout. I need to continue my work after all, lest it bury me after you leave."

Naruto laughed at the now familiar joke between the two of them and nodded in understanding. "Of course Jiji, I will see you tonight." And with no waiting around he headed out the main doors, greeting a very surprised secretary on the way. Once Sarutobi had had it confirmed by his bodyguards that Naruto was well away from the area he turned to Neko, who was still stood at attention waiting for an order. "Stand easy Yugao, I get the feeling we have a lot to discuss before I can get back to work…"


	4. Back to Class, and hating every minute

A/N: Hi guys, having been away now for two weeks, i am back, with the gift of a long chapter (for me anyways). My only warning is that i haven't checked it particularly closely, so any grammar errors, apologies and feel free to point out anything that you think needs to be improved. Now, enough of me; onwards!

Previously on the Shades of Uzu:

As much as he tried not to force Naruto into following the path of a ninja, a way of life that Sarutobi had always advocated had to be chosen by the individual, not forced onto it as they were in some of the smaller villages if they had a bloodline or ability that was useful to the villages power and prosperity, he could not help but be reassured that the Uzumaki seals, which had been so advanced that infiltrating the village without detection had been impossible even to the second Tsuchikage, who had been renowned for his infiltration and assassination skills due to his unique abilities, would soon be defending Konoha if Naruto was anything like his clansmen when it came to skills with seals.

Remembering that Neko was still present and that he would undoubtedly need debriefing after what she had heard in the office so far this morning, it was best to send Naruto away so he could get back to his paperwork before it managed to build up again without him noticing, as it always seemed to on such days. "Right Naruto, well I will let you go to refresh your knowledge of the village and its layout. I need to continue my work after all, lest it bury me after you leave." Naruto laughed at the now familiar joke between the two of them and nodded in understanding. "Of course Jiji, I will see you tonight." And with no waiting around he headed out the main doors, greeting a very surprised secretary on the way. Once Sarutobi had had it confirmed by his bodyguards that Naruto was well away from the area he turned to Neko, who was still stood at attention waiting for an order. "Stand easy Yugao, I get the feeling we have a lot to discuss before I can get back to work…"

The Shades of Uzu, Chapter 4: Back to class and hating every minute of it.

It had not taken long for Naruto to reacquaint himself with the village, other than a change in patrol times and several of the main street shops either expanding or closing down and changing into something else, it was much the same as when he left. If he had been the same boy he was when he had left with Kage, then he would have probably announced his return to the village with some ostentatious prank. However, amongst the other things that Kage had taught him about life in general as well as being a ninja, he had gained a respect for the idea of anonymity and apathy as opposed to angering the villagers straight off the bat. As such, he had instead found out from the Hokage which class he would be in when the Academy started again after the summer break.

He had had limited interaction with the class in question, apart from a somewhat childish crush he had had on one of the girls in the class, a civilian girl called Sakura Haruno that he had met in the pre-academy tutelage. That had quickly been mostly forgotten under Kage's tutelage and the vast travelling the pair had done. As such she had been the first person he had tracked down. Surprisingly she had been by herself, reading in one of the many parks that covered the village's interior. She seemed a lot calmer than he remembered her being, but definitely not the jaw dropping beauty that his mind had conjured when he had remembered her initially. She was pretty, there was no denying that, but her rather violent tendencies at times were rather off-putting, and that was putting it lightly.

Leaving her then, he had followed several other members of his future class, and was on the whole disappointed with all of them. Kage had always shown that Naruto was nowhere near as powerful as he thought he was, claiming that in modesty came the understanding of strength. Yet at the same time there were these kids, who lorded their academy training over their non-ninja friends, though most of the males would struggle to pass the academic parts of the tests with how they were at the moment, and most of the girls were too busy chasing after the last Uchia, who was interestingly in his class as well along with several other of the great clan heirs of Konoha.

The Great clans, as they were termed by those outside of Konoha's walls, consisted of the ten most influential clans in Konoha. These were the Akimichi clan, the Yamanaka clan, the Nara clan, the Abruame clan, the Inzuku clan, the Hyuuga clan, the Senju clan, the Kurama clan, the Hatake clan and the Uchia clan, all with their own clan ninja techniques or bloodlines that made their ninja unique and more powerful than those outside the clans. Over the last forty years however 4 of these clans had fallen into decline, the Uchia the most recent of those in a bloody massacre that occurred in the first year that Naruto had been out of the country.

The massacre was done by the clan heir of all things, and whilst information on what had occurred that night was sketchy at best, it was known that the younger brother of the clan heir was the only survivor, and that his brother had used his Dojutsu, or eye linked bloodline which was called the sharingan, to induce some kind of mental attack on the boy which left him in hospital for almost 2 months, delaying his start at the academy that had occurred that year. The Senju clan and the Hatake clan were reduced to their last members, and both clans had resisted the efforts of the council to force them to begin repopulating their numbers. The Kurama clan were in troubled waters in a different way; their bloodline was becoming more erratic, to the point that their most gifted member had been withdrawn from the academy due to her losing control of her bloodline.

The fact that every one of the other great clan heirs were all in the same class was interesting news to contemplate for later Naruto mused as the Uchia in question walked in half an hour early and sat down in what was obviously his place, about halfway up the room by one of the windows that let the Konoha sunshine into the room. He was also the first to arrive, apart from Naruto of course, who was hidden under a minor genjutsu up at the back of the room, and had been there almost an hour before the academy was due to start to ensure he was the first to arrive. He could not cast Genjutsu properly himself of course due to his horrendous chakra control, despite his and Kage's attempts to fix that issue, and as such the genjutsu was created by the broach on his long jacket that Kage had inscribed for him, all he had to do was supply the chakra to power the illusion which made those who looked at him to want to look elsewhere as well as making them forget they had seen him, a rather nifty if chakra heavy technique.

It was almost five minutes before the next arrival; a civilian girl that he thought was called Hitomi. In that time he was surprised to see the Uchia pull out a book of all things, one that was a suspense thriller about a group of black ops ninja during the 3rd shinobi war, something he did not think that the Uchia would indulge in if you were to listen to the girls that followed him as they did. That changed of course the moment that Hitomi entered, the book was in the Uchia's bag and out of sight with speed that was very impressive, the Uchia adopting a brooding pose that Naruto seemed to get the idea was the norm for him.

Over the next twenty minutes people filtered into the room, none of them noticed him, even the Hyuuga girl who he had been nervous would activate her Dojutsu, the all seeing eye or Bykagan, which allowed her to see chakra in a three hundred and sixty dome around her, and as his genjutsu was brimming with chakra, it would have been plainly obvious to her. The classroom finally was full with only a few minutes before 9am, the only gaps the seats either side of Naruto. The chuunin teacher, whose name was Umino Iruka Naruto had found after a bit of digging, entered with two minutes to go, and stood at the front of the class, obviously waiting for silence from the children in front of him. After thirty seconds of continued murmuring Iruka had obviously had enough and him suddenly spoke up, his face morphing into a giant demonic version of his normal face, his voice loud and scary without him having too shout out for the class to be silent.

Naruto was impressed with such an interesting seal less genjutsu, or he at least hoped it was a genjutsu, otherwise that was a worrying bloodline to have. It certainly quietened the class down, every one of them looking at the chuunin in shocked silence. Knowing that he now had their full attention, Iruka's head returned to its normal size and he opened the register on his desk to check that all the students were present. He called out their names until he called out Sasuke's name, and then he paused, looking at the name below in obvious shock. "Naruto Uzumaki?" People looked around in confusion at the unfamiliar name, though he did notice that Sakura and a couple of the others recognised the name.

He sighed and removed the flow of chakra to his bracelet, breaking the genjutsu and revealing himself as he stood up and stated loudly. "Here, Iruka-sensei!" The reactions to his appearance were certainly amusing to the boy, and it was all he could do to stop himself laughing out loud as the people on either side on him falling out of their seats from shock. Several of the girls screamed, boys shouted in what they would later claim was a 'manly way', and one poor girl fainted, certainly not what you would expect as a reaction from students in their last year of training before becoming battle ready mercenaries.

The only three that reacted appropriately in Naruto's opinion was Sasuke, who was on his feet at the surprise appearance behind him, hand going to his kunai pouch in a good instinctual reaction. The surprises to Naruto however were Sakura and Hinata, the latter leaping up into the gap between rows whilst activating her byakugan, whist the former actually loosed a kunai in his direction as she twirled round in her seat.

He caught the kunai by the ring only a few inches from his face, his face composed even as Iruka finally relaxed enough to rein his instincts that had been itching for him to throw a blade himself at the trespasser. Naruto then walked out of the row of desks, down the steps with the whole class watching him somewhat apprehensively. He stopped in front of Sakura and held out the kunai, speaking in a deadbeat tone. "I believe this is yours, Haruno-san?" She grabbed it quickly, blushing slightly as she averted her eyes quickly out of embarrassment. Then in another moment, Naruto was back in his seat in a burst of speed that many of the academy students could not follow, though Iruka had watched him with something approaching distrust and worry. It was only through happenstance that Naruto knew the reason why Iruka would look at him like that, him and most of the adults in the village. It was during his time training with Kage-sensei, out in the wilds of the country of fire.

*Flashback*

It had been almost 6 months since the two strange companions had been travelling the country of fire. After almost two weeks since they had left the hidden village, Kage had finally come clean about the fact that he had technically kidnapped him from Konoha. Naruto had taken it surprisingly well, only trying to run away back to the village once, before Kage tied him up and explained that the Hokage had given the trip the go ahead as long as Naruto wrote regular letters to him about his training.

The querying of this announcement had been the subject of the first of those letters to the Hokage, and Naruto had only truly calmed down when he had received the reply, courtesy of Kage's shades that regularly went to and from major outpost in the country, detailing in each mail item he sent to the Hokage where he would be calling at next and when, so that responses could be written well in time to be delivered.

With that minor issue out of the way, Kage had then truly started him with his training. beginning with a harsh physical training regime that soon even had Naruto's somewhat impressive stamina on the brink of failure. Though Naruto had to admit that the results were hard to ignore, after three months Kage had stated that his body strength was up to that of a Uzu ninja graduate, so it was now time to work on the other aspects that contributed to shinobi life. They then worked on tactics and knowledge, history of the great nations and the politics of the current villages and nations.

When Naruto asked why he needed to learn such things as they didn't help him become a super kick ass shinobi, Kage had pointed out that the Hokage was required to know these things in order to not accidentally anger a powerful noble or village leader and therefore bring war to his village and his people. Naruto quickly knuckled down after that, though he could tell that his difficulties with the material were driving Kage crazy. Still, they persevered with it until it reached the point that Kage snapped. It wasn't really Naruto's fault that Kage had lost his patience, but trying to teach the boy anything book based without regular breaks of physical exertion was probably the hardest thing Kage had ever been through.

With concentrated theory working considered an impossibility, Kage then worked out a new plan for training. After thinking on it for almost two days, during which he ran Naruto ragged with his shades, a secret technique of his clans that allowed for him to create solid clones that can think for themselves and use their chakra to form techniques, Kage decided that it would be a good idea to teach Naruto some basic techniques, before building up to his shade technique. They were fairly chakra intensive to use, but all the ninja of Uzu were known for their larger than normal chakra capacities, so whilst Kage could not throw them around like he could some of his techniques they were not exhausting for him to utilise on a regular basis.

So the next month was spent on teaching Naruto three techniques, and trying to teach him several more. Naruto took to the kawirimi jutsu and the henge jutsu like a fish to water, and after an hour all Kage could say for him to improve upon regarding the techniques was that he used far too much chakra to complete the technique, causing a massive cloud of smoke to erupt when the switch was made. The flash jutsu, a simple technique that produced a flash of powerful white light upon completion, was something that Kage considered vital for him to learn, though why it was so important was never explained.

It was the clone jutsu that Naruto had been able to get down, and Kage had surmised that this was possibly due to his chakra's instability, its density changing and warping from instant to instant. This in itself wasn't a bad thing, it just meant that for such low chakra cost techniques it was very hard to not accidentally overload them. In an attempt to help Naruto master his chakra somewhat more, as well as to hopefully allow Kage some semblance of peace, Kage had sat him down, and instructed in the art of meditation. It had been a difficult task to achieve with Naruto's energy levels and seemingly permanent hyperactivity, but eventually Naruto had managed to get the concepts down and would spend an hour everyday calming his chakra sinking deeper and deeper into the stance each time.

This continued until eventually he woke to find himself not in the field he and Kage had been training in, but in a strange building, almost sewer like based of the structure, the pipes of blue and red that littered the walls, and finally the water that pooled on the floor. Looking down the corridors, he noticed a light glowing from one end of the passageway, and mildly curious at what was happening to him, having already flexed his chakra in the way that Kage had taught him to dispel genjutsu to no effect. He walked slowly down the path, his feet splashing on the watery ground, though he did not notice any sensation of water splashing him from the movements he was making, but shrugged it off for now, he could work it out more later. Reaching the light, he found it was in fact a glowing set of bars, easily 100 times his height and each one of the twenty bars easily twice his width, enscribed with kanji so dense that it was only by stepping forward he was able to distinguish it was they that were glowing rather than the entire bar.

As he had stepped forwards, something moved in the darkness in what Naruto a moment later designated as a cage, as he had to leap backwards very quickly to avoid a giant claw, one of three attached to the massive paw that spread itself around two of the bars in order to fit. Righting himself whilst turning to eye his attacker, Naruto couldn't help the shiver that went up his spine as he found himself staring up at the grinning visage of a giant red furred fox, whose eyes were filled with amusement and anger. **"So Close, though you are here to visit me earlier than i thought so i can be forgiven for being unprepared, can't i, my little jailer..."**

*End Flashback*

That had been one of the most terrifying experiences in Naruto's short life, and once he had revealed it to Kage upon managing to exit what they had discovered to be his mind scape, the masked man had told him not to try and contact it again, he had met biju containers before, and the more they had used their Biju's chakra, the more mad and dangerous they had seemed to become, not only to their enemies, but also their allies and the innocent bystanders that might be around them when they called upon their inmates chakra. Another thing that Naruto did not want to happen in the slightest. He was glad he knew at least now why everyone had hated him when he was younger, and why some of them were still wary of him now he had returned.

He was broken by his musing by his reflexes screaming at him that something was coming towards him from the front of the class. Without thinking, having been tested many times by Kage for his reflexes, he grabbed the offending object, and threw it back with the addition of some chakra in the direction it had come. There was a crash, and looking for the first time at what had happened, he found himself looking at the amazed eyes of the entire class, Iruka shifted so that he was side on, having just avoided the blackboard wider that had been thrown by him at Naruto for some reason or other, the offending object now embedded in the wall behind the now shattered blackboard, a eruption of chalk being the only movement for a moment. Scratching the back of his head, Naruto smiled apologetically and then spoke quickly. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, did you want something?"


	5. Consequences of an Act

A/N: Firstly, thanks to those that reviewed, and the only thing anyone said about it that was not a complete positive was really constructive, Thanks very much Kingkong4life86 for his review, i hadn't noticed and neither had anyone else, it is corrected from here on in. My second point is that the surprise is going to come up in the next chapter, I have given a very subtle hint about which character it is in relation to, and i hope people won't overreact to it when it happens... Now onwards with the story, and please review with feedback, good or bad, I will gladly receive it :)

_Previously on Shade of Uzu_

_That had been one of the most terrifying experiences in Naruto's short life, and once he had revealed it to Kage upon managing to exit what they had discovered to be his mind scape, the masked man had told him not to try and contact it again, he had met biju containers before, and the more they had used their Biju's chakra, the more mad and dangerous they had seemed to become, not only to their enemies, but also their allies and the innocent bystanders that might be around them when they called upon their inmates chakra. Another thing that Naruto did not want to happen in the slightest. He was glad he knew at least now why everyone had hated him when he was younger, and why some of them were still wary of him now he had returned._

_****He was broken by his musing by his reflexes screaming at him that something was coming towards him from the front of the class. Without thinking, having been tested many times by Kage for his reflexes, he grabbed the offending object, and threw it back with the addition of some chakra in the direction it had come. There was a crash, and looking for the first time at what had happened, he found himself looking at the amazed eyes of the entire class, Iruka shifted so that he was side on, having just avoided the blackboard wider that had been thrown by him at Naruto for some reason or other, the offending object now embedded in the wall behind the now shattered blackboard, a eruption of chalk being the only movement for a moment. Scratching the back of his head, Naruto smiled apologetically and then spoke quickly. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, did you want something?"_

Consequence of an act:

After his rather... Unique form of introducing himself to his classmates, it was little surprise that the class gave him a wide berth both inside and outside the classroom. Some of them were probably doing so on command from their parents, Naruto thought rather wryly as he walked up to his usual spot at the top right seat of the classroom past a civilian boy that glared silently at him.

The Sandaime's law had indeed stopped any of the adults from mentioning the case of Naruto being the container directly, but Jiji had obviously underestimated the hate and ingenuity of a good portion of the civilian populace. They had carefully and indirectly poisoned the minds of their children against the object of their hate and fear, and by the wonders of peer pressure, that dislike and avoidance had spread through the academy before he had left like wildfire, and his return seemed to have refuelled that hate, if not to the same levels that it had been before now.

Though that only accounted for some of the avoidance, Naruto thought as Sakura entered the class, looked up at where he was sitting for a moment before realising he was looking at her and looked down whilst taking her seemingly usual seat at the front of the class. The odd behaviour from what Naruto remembered to be an intelligent but very confident and outspoken girl confused Naruto for a moment, but he shook it off as a part of girls progress through puberty, something he wouldn't understand now, and hoped he never would.

The other girls seemed to be copying the actions of the last Uchiha, who seemed to have taken to glowering at Naruto at every possibility. He guessed it was because the boy suspected that Naruto had been present to seeing him break his favoured ice cold demeanour with his choice of reading material. If asked about the Uchiha and his opinion on the boy, Naruto would simply reply that he disliked the boy because of how much special attention the boy had evidently received in order to get to the level of prodigy that everyone crowed about round the walls of Konoha.

Thus far, he had seen the specialist teachers for ninjutsu, traps and evasion, stealth and the fitness instructor all give the boy extra 1 to 1 training during class, to the detriment of those that actually needed it, as well as demonstrating to him special moves and advanced techniques that they never shared with the rest of the class. Only Iruka did not favour the boy in the slightest during lessons, and to Naruto's surprise, the uchiha seemed to pay more attention in these classes, listening attentively, and occasionally asking muttered questions at the end of class to Iruka or the assistant teacher Mizuki.

This seeming defiance of the pampering that he seemed to realise that he was receiving did not stop it happening, Naruto noted as the genjutsu teacher went over the practical applications of the cancellation technique for the dozenth time in less than a month of teaching the subject, not even approaching the idea of casting a genjutsu or having one cast upon them. The official line for that was that "the academy did not want to use even the lowest forms of genjutsu, as they might scare or otherwise emotionally scar the students before they were truly ready to face shinobi life after graduating the academy."

Civilian appeasing bull crap if you asked Naruto, if the genin that graduated did not get a genjutsu specialist sensei, then they would fall prey to the weakest of genjutsu casters once they were out on missions. Kage had spent almost three months casting genjutsu of various types on him in order together him used to detecting the presence of genjutsu due to the presence of foreign chakra in his chakra system. Even with that combined experience, it was still a hit and miss affair as to whether Naruto had any idea he was in a genjutsu, and shoddy control still caused him a number of issues in regards to dispelling them even if he could detect them.

But he pushed his thoughts about his deficiencies to one side as the class bell rang and the teacher, whose name had forgotten and probably never would find worth remembering whilst here in the academy, finally stopped droning on and waved his hand dismissively, as if shooing the class away so that they did not distract him any further. Naruto would normally be annoyed about being ignored, but his excitement for the next class overrode this reaction quite firmly as he almost bounced out of the room.

The reason for his excitement? Taijutsu class of course, what else? For the last three weeks they had gone over the advanced katas of the Konoha academy style, which Naruto had not participated in as he had his own style that he had been working on, the style of the Uzumaki's Kage had told him as he had tortured the boy through the first four katas. With his non participation, everyone had assumed that he was not at all strong with Taijutsu, not that Naruto had minded that assumption, going as far as to bring his katana to classes to make it seem that he was working on weapon proficiency rather than hand to hand combat.

If people had the wrong ideas about his capabilities, then that would only help him should he need to fight them for whatever reason. Something he would need to keep in mind today, as today was the first session in which the members of the class would get to practice their skills physically against each other. Whilst he wanted to test himself against someone other than Kage, who crushed him so convincingly every time they sparred it was a wonder that he had any confidence in his skill, he wished to keep his known skills at a minimum, lest people start up about his strength being because of the fox trapped in his stomach.

As such, he hoped for an easy pairing today, as that would allow for him to win convincingly without too much effort. Though he somehow doubted he would be so lucky, as he lead the group out onto the training grounds where Iruka and Mizuki were waiting for them.

Iruka spoke, smile on his face as he regarded those in front of him. "Afternoon class, I hope you are all ready for this, your first proper observed battle. Everyone will be against randomised opponents, and for the first six months we will keep it as boy vs boy and girl vs girl until you are all a little more experienced. The rules are simple, Taijutsu Only, no ninjutsu or clan techniques or chakra enhancements, the winner is the one who incapacitates their opponent or forces them outside of the ring. As we progress we will allow the use of techniques and weapons, and then we will have a tournament halfway through the year to determine the best Taijutsu user of the year, after the academy field course and faux mission of course. Everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded, some visibly much more eager for a fight than others were, primarily the Inuzuka and uchiha boys were limbering up and getting themselves ready, though from the look on Sakura's face as she glared at a couple of the other civilian girls, he imagined that she was pretty eager to settle a score as well. Iruka then motioned to one side. "If everyone who is not fighting can stay well away from the ring, and not try to distract either fighter whilst the fight is occurring, then you will be allowed to spectate. If any of you cause trouble from the sidelines, you will be forced to go and wait inside. Now, the first two fighters of the afternoon..."

Iruka named off two of the civilian boys, who entered into the ring, bowing to each other and then forming academy stances. Iruka commented on each of the stances, and what could be improved, before beginning the fight. The two began tentatively, their opening exchange dominated by ranging punches and kicks, before the two got more and more involved in the fight. Despite irukas repeated exclaimations to return to the correct stance, the two slowly began to revert to a more natural brawl that left both badly bruised even before one of them managed to land a heavy punch to the others face, leaving him on the floor with a bloody nose. Iruka called the fight, giving both a lecture on proper form and it's uses before sending them both to the infirmary for treatment.

The next match was between Ino Yamanaka and Ami, a match that the blonde girl dominated with moves that she had obviously learned from her family, whilst Ami performed with a passable style, but was obviously unused to facing someone in combat, and as such was easily confused by the different style she was faced with. In less than two minutes Ami was thrown onto her back on the floor, Iruka turning to lecture the class on the different styles that they might face on the battlefield, whilst Ino had flicked her hair in an egoistic way before leaving the ring to the cries of several boys who were obviously enamoured by her.

Without thinking about it, Naruto stepped into to the ring towards the downed girl, noting out of the corner of his eye both chuunin stiffening in response before Iruka continued as if nothing had happened. Ami seemed to be watching him carefully as well, and flinched slightly as he stuck out his hand to help her up before accepting it tentatively and pulling herself up. She pulled herself up quite forcefully, and pulled herself into him before either of them realised it. A moment later she was heading out of the ring with a muffled thanks directed towards him, her face bright red.

There was muttering throughout the class at this little interaction, though Naruto shrugged off the looks easily enough, he had been doing it for as long as he could remember after all. Three fights later, and two of them had been dominated by the major clan heirs, though the Nara heir had come close to giving up at the start of his match, before being reminded by Iruka that he would've informing his mother of the results of the fight, and Naruto was wondering whether this class was just entirely against the civilians that made up two thirds of its group, as the clans had a very obvious advantage when it came to outside help.

Then Iruka mentioned his name, and his attention snapped back to the scarred chuunin. "Yes Iruka-sensei?" Iruka sighed before repeating himself. "the fifth match, Naruto Uzumaki vs Kiba Inuzuka, is what I said if you had been listening." nodding to himself as much as to assenting to Iruka's statement, Naruto leapt up from where he had been sat thinking and stepped once more into the ring, his opponent, a well built feral looking boy who had been accompanied everywhere by his pet dog.

From what Kage had told him, the Inuzuka were very proficient at Taijutsu, especially with their clan techniques and partners to work with. Whilst lacking both of these, Kiba was not to be underestimated, as he leapt forward the moment Iruka began the match, teeth barred and his elongated nails, almost like claws at the ready. Naruto started out defensive, parrying the boys sweeping attacks with his hands, and dodging the powerful kicks that were evidently meant to open up his defences for the clawing attacks to have an effect.

If it weren't for the fact that Kage had trained him very vigorously in Taijutsu and endurance techniques throughout the training trip, Naruto knew that he would have probably been overwhelmed by the furious assault, but instead he was comfortable with his moves, deflecting them until an opening appeared in Kibas defences, which Naruto capitalised on, a powerful palm strike sending Kiba backwards wheezing and grasping his stomach with one hand for a moment before recovering and taking a stance once more.

The next attack was more guarded, and the two boys traded strikes with each other for the next thirty seconds, Kibas endurance beginning to flag as Naruto rained blow after blow onto the boys guard, forcing the boy back step after step, Naruto upping the intensity as Kiba approached the rim of the Taijutsu ring in his attempts to gain some distance between the two fighters. With Kiba barely two paces from the edge, Naruto suddenly changed tactics, ducking down and kicking out hard, he caught the boy in the midsection with a devastating kick that lifted him into the air and out of the ring, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.

There was silence for a moment at this result, and Naruto knew that it was the chuunin that were the most shocked, his academy report from his first two years telling the tale that he was terrible at Taijutsu, but he had just destroyed one of the Taijutsu specialist clan members in the class, without even breaking a sweat. The best part for Naruto was that he had not even been forced to use the Uzumaki style, sticking with the general punches, kicks and parries that Kage had taught him as a precursor to the actual style, meaning that he hadn't given away anything other than some of his speed, strength and endurance, which was not very informative to anyone who did not know him well.

Finally shaking himself out of what had been a group wide stupor, Iruka spoke even as he hurried to check on the downed boy. "winner by ring eviction, Naruto Uzumaki, Mizuki, you continue the session from here, I have to take Kiba to the infirmary for treatment, he might have cracked a couple of ribs on his landing." without another word he activated a shushin and disappeared from the training grounds. Mizuki stepped forward and picked up Iruka's clipboard from where he had dropped it, looking at the assigned pairings whilst shooing Naruto out of the ring with a dismissive wave.

Making a mental note to hold back more in the future if he had actually injured his classmate that much, Naruto headed out of the ring back to his original position off to the side. Somewhat unsurprisingly the rest of the class gave him a respectful berth after that display, and a teaching point from Kage entered his head. "It is good for both your allies and your enemies to respect your power, that brings peace, but only your enemies should fear your power, lest your allies end up turning on you because of that fear.'

With that echoing his head all of a sudden, Naruto took it as a sign that he had probably taken his new image a little too far, and that perhaps working to get to know his classmates would not be the worst thing in the world for him to do. The problem was that with the record he had given himself, changing that around suddenly would be very difficult to achieve in the short run. He continued to think on the matter as the remaining bouts occurred, with all the clan heirs winning comfortably, and the civilian on civilian matches being a lot closer in comparison.

The only surprise was Sakuras match, which was against one of the girls that she had been glaring at before. Using perfect Taijutsu and surprising flexibility, Sakura had her opponent pinned to the floor rather painfully in less than a minute, before standing embarrassedly and apologising in a quiet tone before leaving the arena to sit by herself once more, under the cold looks of what were obviously the defeated girls friends.

Something was happening there that Naruto was missing, that much Was certain, though he wished to avoid trying to be friends with Sakura to begin with, in case she took it as a sign that he hadn't lost his crush on her and tried to return to her old way of treating him, something that Naruto would definitely not stand for this time around. The bell rang, signalling the end of the day, and Naruto took the opportunity to depart straight away, heading towards the training ground that as far as he was aware had been disused for some time, or so he had discovered whilst using it thus far, he needed to think further on how to change his attitude in order to be able to befriend at least some of his classmates.

As Naruto leapt off, he was unaware of the pair of eyes that had been watching him keenly since he had won his match. With the utmost stealth, the owner of the pair of eyes leapt up onto the roof after Naruto, determined to put the dobe back in the place he had been before he had mysteriously disappeared for two years, onyx eyes flashing with determination and anger as the figure followed at a reasonable distance.

Arriving in the training grounds, Naruto started with a few basic exercises before settling himself into the meditation pose that Kage had taught him in order to calm his rather chaotic chakra. Breathing deeply and clearing his mind, he was just about to relax when he heard someone shift on the edge of the clearing he was currently in. Straining his senses, he caught a familiar smell and frowned even as he called out irritably. "What are you doing here, Uchiha-San?"


	6. Confrontation and ?

A/N: Now, after the last chapter i received some very good feedback, but it was done by a guest so i could not reply except on here. They stated that there had been no canon proof the Uchiha had received extra training and that if anything it had been Naruto that had received the special treatment. This is true, but this story is very much Naruto's point of view, and even in our world teachers play favourites, so the idea that some of them would try and do so to curry favour with the last of the Uchiha clan is not too unreasonable. I am not saying that Sasuke does not train his ass off, it is just that Naruto is seeing what he sees and makes assumptions based on that.

The review also mentioned that the council wanted Sasuke dead so that there was no threat of a vengeful Uchiha clan finding out they orchestrated the massacre, so that the word privileged should not be used in Sasuke's case as he has had it as badly as Naruto has. This again is kind of true, but I would like to point out this is a fanfic, as technically the village council doesn't exist in the official universe, it is instead used as an enemy in many cases just because its easier to create a bunch of useless merchants that somehow seem to have gained a load of power they shouldn't have so that the favoured characters can stomp on them and everyone cheers. My council will be more balanced, and it is only the three elders, Danzo, Homura and Koharu that orchestrated the massacre, the others of the council have no idea that it was anything other than Itachi going mad, and are only concerned in making sure that the village is run properly and efficiently, and one of the ways the council see that happening is to get the Uchiha clan back on its feet as soon as possible, as they have a lot of economic interests both inside and outside Konoha.

So, no mad power hungry council, the elders will be ruthless but not stupidly evil, Naruto is a bit biased but definitely not overpowered, and this will start to hopefully be shown to him in the next couple of chapters. Sasuke? Well, if you have a problem with me giving him a bit of extra training, you are going to hate the rest of this story methinks. But enough of my ranting, thanks for all those that reviewed, now on with the story!

_Previously on Shades of Uzu:_

_As Naruto leapt off, he was unaware of the pair of eyes that had been watching him keenly since he had won his match. With the utmost stealth, the owner of the pair of eyes leapt up onto the roof after Naruto, determined to put the dobe back in the place he had been before he had mysteriously disappeared for two years, onyx eyes flashing with determination and anger as the figure followed at a reasonable distance._

_Arriving in the training grounds, Naruto started with a few basic exercises before settling himself into the meditation pose that Kage had taught him in order to calm his rather chaotic chakra. Breathing deeply and clearing his mind, he was just about to relax when he heard someone shift on the edge of the clearing he was currently in. Straining his senses, he caught a familiar smell and frowned even as he called out irritably. "What are you doing here, Uchiha-San?"_

Chapter 6: Confrontation and ?

After a few moments with no response, Naruto was tempted to stand, mainly to go beat some manners into the boy, before he heard the inhalation and the rapid movement that could only be associated with a technique. Leaping to one side, eyes open and furious, Naruto was proved right a moment later when the area he had been sat in exploded into flames. Glaring at the dark haired boy as he leapt down from the trees, Naruto growled out his question even as he assumed the first stance of the Uzumaki style, a defensive one designed to open up the enemy to counter attacks with sweeping blocks and deflections.

"What the hell uchiha? I ask you a simple question and you try and flame me? Not cool psycho!" For a second Naruto thought he was not going to get a response and readied himself, before the uchiha finally spoke. " I will tell you why, IF you beat me!" and with that he flung himself forward, covering the distance with surprising swiftness. Naruto was on the back foot, that much was certain from the first few exchanges.

Whilst he was not as strong as Kiba, Sasuke made up for it in terms of speed and skill, his Taijutsu very advanced and unknown to Naruto, probably a much more advanced version of the leaf style that some adoring chuunin had instructed him in. It was very compact, and Sasuke left no openings as he pressed his attacks further and faster against Naruto's defences. After a couple of minutes, Sasuke leapt backwards, if anything seemingly more angry at Naruto than he had been at the start. "why are you not fighting!" the boy roared, before flinging two kunai with his left hand, running forward with two more being readied in his right.

Naruto caught the first projectile and used it to deflect the second in a spinning motion, bringing himself to face his opponent once more just in time to dodge the opening slashes with the two kunai. Drawing another kunai, Naruto settled himself into a more balanced style than the first one he had used, and the two struck backwards and forwards for a minute. It was Sasuke that made the first mistake in his obvious rage at the situation. One of his strikes with his left arm was overextended, allowing Naruto to disarm his blade in that hand before flipping the uchiha with that hand over onto his back.

Acting before the uchiha could react, Naruto stamped his foot onto the uchihas right wrist, causing him to drop the other kunai with a yelp. At the same time Naruto brought one of his kunai to the boys neck, causing him to freeze in place, fear obvious in his features. Breathing heavily after what had been the best match he had had with anyone other than Kage, Naruto still spoke furiously at the one that had attacked him, almost tempted to activate the Kage clan technique that Kage had taught him, the mask of shadows, just to add to the effect.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, I shall ask again you little psycho, why did you attack me for no good reason? And answer quickly lest I lose my patience, that would not end well for you." that got a reaction and the uchiha snarled at him. "You wouldn't dare, I am the uchiha..." he cut off as Naruto's blade cut lightly into his throat, something in his eyes beginning to change and glow red as Naruto replied in his best intimidating tone. "try me, it would make my day, possibly my week. If I chose, no one would ever find your body." This was a calculated bluff on Naruto's part, he only meant to knock the boy out and present him to the Hokage on the charge of attempted murder, but if the boy thought that he was serious about the body thing, that was his problem.

Counting down from five, Naruto couldn't help but grin when at three seconds Sasuke cried out in a rather feminine voice for him to stop, though he presumed that it could well be the stress of the situation that had caused it. He withdrew his kunai and stepped backwards, leaving Sasuke to rub his throat gingerly with his uninjured hand. After another moment Sasuke spoke up, his voice back to its usual gruff tone. "I wished to find out if the match with Kiba today had been a fluke, or whether the rumours were true, that you had been taken by some night demon, and trained to hold terrible power. As you are no longer the dobe you were before you left..." the boy stopped speaking, but the insinuation was obvious. Naruto chuckled to himself, Kage would love to have gained the moniker night demon in addition to all his other titles.

"So that is your defence for trying to kill me? You wished to find out if i had got a lot stronger..." Sasuke shook his head before Naruto could rail on him for his stupidity. "if you had looked like you werent going to move I would have fired the fireball elsewhere, I'm not that stupid idiot. The other reason was that you proved to be a true challenge, you don't hold back like everyone else does, not wanting to hurt their 'precious uchiha.' I thought if I fought you, then maybe I would gain my clans bloodline, which supposedly only awakens in life or death situations."

looking into the boys now red eyes, each with a single tomoe present to form part of the iris, Naruto had to admit that the uchihas surprisingly impassioned speech made a lot of sense, especially as it seemed to have worked, not that the uchiha seemed to have noticed. Pocketing one of his kunai, Naruto grabbed the small pocket mirror that Kage had insisted he carry in order to use it to look round corners without exposing himself to detection. Holding it out to the uchiha he spoke a lot more cheerfully then he had thus far. "Well, this is twice you owe me then, one for not planning on reporting this attack, and the other favour? Well its best if you see it for yourself."

Looking confusedly at Naruto, obviously unsure of what he meant, Sasuke grasped the mirror, looking at it for a moment before obvious understanding passed over his face and a grin formed on his face. If Naruto hadn't been expecting the leaping attack in response to this revelation, he wasn't sure that he would have been able to react in time to parry it. Sasuke was even faster now, and seemed hell bent on repaying Naruto for his earlier defeat.

Naruto fell back step after step, pushed to his very limits as Sasuke seemed able to predict what he was about to do before he did it. He had already taken two hits to the chest and a kick to the face, one that had left his lip bleeding lightly, and that was before Sasuke returned to his idea of using dual kunai. Knowing he wouldn't be able to defend himself properly with just kunai, Naruto used the momentary pause in sasukes attack generated by his reaching for his pouch to leap back, and bring his hand to his sword.

Kage was a short sword user, but was proficient in most types of weapons that one would be considered easily found in the elemental nations. As such he had got Naruto to practice with several weapons to find out which he was most comfortable with, before training him in that weapon primarily. The result was the nodachi strapped to his waist. It wasn't a full nodachi, shortened to suit Naruto's size and build, but the concepts behind its use were the same.

As such Naruto focussed on the first of the techniques that Kage had taught him, and the only one that Kage claimed that he was passable in. The lions roar technique was simple drawing technique that required on sheer speed and a little chakra enhancement. As Sasuke charged forward into range, Naruto drew his blade with all the speed he could muster, slashing first upwards and then back downwards in one smooth action, taking a step forwards to extend the second swipes range as he did so, it's speed such that his own eyes could barely keep up with with the blur, and he knew where it was going.

Sasuke somehow saw the technique despite its speed, and attempted to dodge backwards to avoid the swipes. He actually managed to avoid the first blow entirely, though the second sliced his shirt open and left a light cut along his torso. Sasuke finished leaping back as Naruto sheathed his blade once more, hoping that the display had brought the uchiha back to earth. His thoughts stopped in his tracks however as the breeze in the area picked up, blowing sasukes shirt to either side of his body, leaving Naruto staring in shock at what was in front of him.

Sasuke looked ready to continue before he realised that Naruto was staring dumbly at him. Following Narutos gaze to its point of interest Sasuke immeadiatly dropped both of his kunai and tried to close his t-shirt and cover himself from Narutos eyes with a very girl like shriek of shock and embarressment. The damage had already been done however, as was proved by Narutos rather shocked exclaimation a moment later. "Sasuke, why the hell do you have breasts?"

A/N: And as such, my reader count plummets, but as I have warned many times, this bit is the bit that started this story, so those that don't like it? well, there are another 300,000 stories for you to find one you do like in. As long as its not to scream at me for the above, reviews are welcomed and I hope some of you continue to read on.


	7. Revelations of an unexpected kind

Previously on the Shades of Uzu:

_As such Naruto focussed on the first of the techniques that Kage had taught him, and the only one that Kage claimed that he was passable in. The lions roar technique was simple drawing technique that required on sheer speed and a little chakra enhancement. As Sasuke charged forward into range, Naruto drew his blade with all the speed he could muster, slashing first upwards and then back downwards in one smooth action, taking a step forwards to extend the second swipes range as he did so, it's speed such that his own eyes could barely keep up with with the blur, and he knew where it was going._

_Sasuke somehow saw the technique despite its speed, and attempted to dodge backwards to avoid the swipes. He actually managed to avoid the first blow entirely, though the second sliced his shirt open and left a light cut along his torso. Sasuke finished leaping back as Naruto sheathed his blade once more, hoping that the display had brought the uchiha back to earth. His thoughts stopped in his tracks however as the breeze in the area picked up, blowing sasukes shirt to either side of his body, leaving Naruto staring in shock at what was in front of him._

_Sasuke looked ready to continue before he realised that Naruto was staring dumbly at him. Following Narutos gaze to its point of interest Sasuke immeadiatly dropped both of his kunai and tried to close his t-shirt and cover himself from Narutos eyes with a very girl like shriek of shock and embarressment. The damage had already been done however, as was proved by Narutos rather shocked exclaimation a moment later. "Sasuke, why the hell do you have breasts?"_

Revelations of an unexpected kind

Naruto fell silent after his exclamation, leaving the two in silence for a moment, both turning red for different reasons. Sasuke finally responded, spitting such was his fury. "I thought the answer to that would be obvious, even too you dobe..." he then cut off as if realising something, even as Naruto posed his own guess at what the boy meant. "Does it mean that you are one of those weird boy-girl people that Iruka-sensei was teaching us about, a haema..." as Naruto trailed off, trying to remember what the word was that Iruka had used, Sasuke sputtered in embarrassment before shouting back at him.

"I am not one of those things, I am fully female thank you very much!" Sasuke then seemed to realise what he had said as he quieted with a quiet "meep" leaving Naruto to try and wrap his brain round what he had just discovered. "but why would you hide that you are a girl..." as he said it, Naruto was taken back to what he had overheard a few days after his return, just before he had started at the academy.

*flashback*

_Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, in an effort to try and familiarise himself with the village once more, Naruto paused as he saw a small crowd forming in one of the squares. Leaping down, he had been disappointed when he had found it simply to be the uchiha going about his daily business, groups of young girls following him in what had to be what they assumed to be inconspicuously. Just as he was about to leap off once more, he heard a man comment to his wife._

_"I'm honestly very glad that our daughter isn't into him dear, I mean not only is he under threat of his brother coming back to finish the job, but in a few years time the council will start making demands that he start on rebuilding his clan, and there is only so much the Hokage can do to stop them from picking him marriages and girls to be with if he doesn't find any himself by that point. It could be worse though I suppose, at least he is a male..." Naruto had lost interest at that point and had taken off, back to his scouting._

*end flashback*

The realisation hit him like a brick and he actually gasped before recovering. Before he said anything else, he undid his black jacket that Kage had bought him, holding it out towards Sasuke, whose expression changed from rage to that of confusion very quickly. After a moment of nothing happening Naruto spoke in order to clarify his action. " You can put this on, it will be better for both of us if we have this conversation whilst you're not trying to cover yourself." understanding crossed her face and she stepped forwards, Naruto turning his gaze away as she grabbed it with a muttered thanks.

After another moments pause Sasuke spoke once more. "I suppose I now find myself in the horrible position of being in your debt Naruto-San, that is assuming you plan on not telling everyone about my secret?" As Naruto began to turn his head to answer, he found her hands holding his head in place away from her. "I need you to answer a few more questions before I can let you turn back round Naruto-San, so I know whether I can trust you." Naruto shrugged, an action that is surprisingly difficult with your head being held in place. "whatever you say Sasuke, though what is with the San all of a sudden?"

her response contained a hint of resignation. "I am hoping if I show you some more respect, it may help you decide to help me, but I can go back to dobe if you prefer Naruto-San. Now answer the question, will you keep my secret?" well that was an easy enough question to answer and thus he replied without hesitation. "Of course I will Sasuke-chan, I know why you hide yourself now and I wouldn't wish what would happen if you were found out upon anyone, even the idiot janitor at the academy." there was a small giggle, something that seemed so out of place in Narutos head with the Sasuke he knew it was unnerving.

"At least we can agree on that point. My next question is, what do you wish in return for your silence?" that one stumped him for a moment, what the hell was she talking about? Then he remembered a point from Kage that had been brought during his lessons on diplomacy. "everyone expects something for doing nothing. Ninja expect a lot for not spreading secrets they know, it's all about the prices both sides bring to the table as to whether he gives up the secret he possesses." With this in mind, Naruto decided that continuing to be honest was the best tactic. "Honestly, I want nothing from you, I found out something, it is important to keep it secret otherwise you will be in a lot of trouble and in a very bad situation, I would hope for the same should anyone know one of my secrets."

that obviously surprised her, and he felt the hands holding his head remove themselves before grabbing his shoulders and turning him to face her, her eyes ablaze and sharingan whirling. "do you mean that, honestly? I will know if you are lying, that's one of the things that the sharingan helps me detect." He nodded his head vigourously. "Of course I am, what could you give me that I want anyways?" that brought another disbelieving look from the girl, the disbelief stretching into her reply.

" Apart from me being the sole heir of a powerful and prestigious clan whose coffers are still decently filled with the income of the shops who rent from me? My mind boggles at the lack of possibilities available to you in this situation." Okay, it was official, regardless of her gender, Sasuke had a way of making Naruto feel completely dumb, something that he liked to think was not that easy to do. He quirked his eyebrow questioningly "Would it just be easier for you to accept if I did ask for something, because if this takes much longer then we are probably going to get in trouble with the ANBU patrols when we try to get home." that point brought the tint of red to her cheeks and she let go of him hastily. "You are correct, I should be grateful to you for your generosity, but here I am trying to force you to accept something. I will not try again I swear, but I do have a question to ask of you, if you would grant me it?"

After being attacked, screamed at, attacked again and then interrogated, being asked a question was a relief to Naruto at this point. "Of course Sasuke-chan, as long as it isn't too ridiculous at this point that is." she giggled once more before turning away from him once more. "firstly, my name is actually Saki, not Sasuke, and secondly, as the only one of our generation who knows the truth about me, I need your opinion." she moved her hands but as she was facing away from him he couldn't make out what she was doing before she turned around once more, her tone light and amused. "Does my haircut make me look less attractive like this? Should it be longer?"

Naruto struggled to remain conscious as he eyeballed Saki. She had obviously dispelled some technique or other, but her face had changed. The changes weren't huge by themselves, her cheekbones a little higher, her jaw less defined, her face overall a little narrower, but when combined together you were looking at someone else entirely. In addition, her hair, which had previously stuck up slightly and out to the sides, now fell flat, leaving her with a very attractive face and hair that covered her ears but went no further in a surprisingly flattering look.

She giggled once more, the smile changing her face even further. If someone had told him that this girl was the real Sasuke, he would have told them they were crazy. "I didn't think it was possible to strike you dumb Naruto-San, I thought that came naturally to you?" the insult was made obviously in jest, so Naruto managed not to over react, which is probably what she wanted at this point. He instead deflected to something else "I'm assuming you dispelled some sort of technique or other when you turned around, but the chakra cost would be too much for you too maintain all day, so I'm guessing a seal of some type?"

His insight surprised her, that much was obvious, but she nodded and then undid the top of his jacket, revealing a seal that was present on her shoulders on the front of her torso. Naruto tried to cover his eyes, but stopped when she shouted at him. "don't bother, it's nothing you haven't already seen so there is no point in acting embarrassed after your little drooling session earlier." He flushed, that was true enough, the image of Sasuke's small but developing chest was firmly rooted in his head, and he doubted that he would be able to remove it for quite some time, not that he particularly wanted to.

Lowering his hand, he approached and began to look at the seal closely, marvelling at the complexity of the seal. Kage had only covered the basics of sealing, being an amateur himself who could only create the most basic of the seals he required, but he had told Naruto that the Uzumaki's were renowned for their sealing skills, and thus Naruto's fascination with the subject began. Tracing a particular line that he thought connected two of the important functions, the charging function and the storage function, he noticed Saki shiver slightly, and it wasn't just because of his touch.

Darkness was fast approaching, and with the clear sky that was typical of the Konoha summer nights, the temperature would plummet rapidly. With a sigh he stepped back, grabbing the zipper on his jacket he pulled it up, covering Saki once more though she still protested that she could do it herself. "As much as I would love to work out how that seal works and all it's little secrets, it's getting late, and we better get you back quickly before the ANBU appear in force, last thing we want is for them to find you like this."

She nodded but looked a little worried. "the problem is that the seal needs more time to charge before I can activate it once more. And if I use a henge, they might sense it and apprehend me as a possible infiltrator, which is even worse." Naruto smiled reassuringly at her before grabbing her hand. "Don't worry about that Saki-chan, I have a technique that will get us into the uchiha compound, all I need you to do is hold on tight to me and close your eyes, you really really do not want to have them open through this."

She looked at him intently for a moment before sighing and stepping in close to wrap herself around him in a hug. "This had better not be an excuse for you to cop a feel, or you will regret it, that much i swear now." with her threat issued, she closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder with a grimace. Deciding not to wait a moment lest she think that he was trying to get fresh with her, he brought his hands up behind her back, forming handseal after handseal with meticulous precision.

The technique was another of Kages, and whilst useful was one of the most chakra intensive techniques that the masked man knew. It worked by casting the user, and everyone and everything attached to them, into a parallel dimension which was essentially made up of shadows and fire. It then brought them out once more in the location that Naruto had been thinking of, one of the courtyards in the uchiha compound that he had seen whilst he had been scouting. The technique was very smooth, though it required huge amounts of energy, both to transport the mass of the caster and whoever he was with, and to erect a chakra shield around them to deter the denizens of the alternate realm from trying to snack upon them.

After a few moments without her moving, Naruto realised that Saki probably didn't realise they had moved at all, and looking down, he was surprised to see a relatively soft smile on the girls face, and loath he was to break it, he knew it was better to get her inside before a patrol passed by them. "Saki-chan, you can open your eyes now, we are here." she opened them slowly, before realising that he was looking down at her. She sprang away from him, cheeks flushing even as she schooled her face into a neutral expression once more. Once she had done that, she looked around and realised that he was correct and they had moved. She turned back to Naruto eyeing him in an appraising manner that made Naruto want to shiver slightly. "a very impressive technique Naruto-San, you do know that you are going to teach me that technique one way or another." Naruto shook his head negatively. " I'm afraid I can't do that Saki-chan, I promised my teacher that I would only teach my family these techniques, they are all that is left of my village after all."

Okay, rather than put her off, that line of defence seemed to have made her more excited, if the predatory grin was anything to go by. She muttered something that he didn't catch, before turning away and pointing. "But enough about the technique for now, we can negotiate about it later I'm sure, my home is this way, and I would quite like you to walk me there before you depart." deciding to get a bit of teasing of his own in at this point, Naruto spoke in a teasing tone as he walked next to her, surprised when she slipped her hand into his lightly before squeezing slightly.

"Aww, that's sweet Saki-chan, with this and your expression earlier when we arrived, one could think that you liked me..." He stopped as she gave him a look that promised him pain if he continued to speak about the subject, and he wisely dropped it before he could get himself in more trouble. They thus walked through the district in silence, passing through well kept gardens and streets, before approaching a large three story house on the edge of the compound, close to one of the gates leading through to the rest of Konoha.

"This is where I live now, it used to be a storage building that I never went in, so after everything that happened, there are at least no memories to haunt me in here." Not sure of how else to react, Naruto settled for a reassuring smile whilst squeezing her hand reassuringly. A Sasuke with feelings would take a while to get used to, but it was better than the old Sasuke, that was sure. "Well Saki-chan, you know where I am, and my door is always open should you need me. Just, if I do or say something stupid, please kill me quickly?" that brought a smirk back to her face as she scoffed. "don't count on it dobe, i will torture you as much as I like, and you won't complain in the slightest." she paused before looking at him seriously once more. "But seriously, thanks Naruto, not just for keeping my secret. It is, refreshing to finally have someone my own age to talk to once more, even if it is a smelly boy." the last bit was obviously said in jest, but he still pretended to take offence in an exaggerated manner. "What, me smelly? The good lady doth wound me with her words." She giggled, another thing he would have to adapt to, before squeezing his hand one last time, turning to head to the door.

Turning the key she produced from her pouch, she opened the door whilst calling out once more. "Goodnight Naruto, and I will see you at the same training grounds tomorrow after the academy, you've already proved more use than those buffoons that claim to be our teachers." and with that said she was gone, leaving Naruto alone in the courtyard, his mind still in a whirl from the huge influx of information that he had taken in during the last couple of hours. Finally deciding to move back home, he supposed there was one good thing about the evening, at least he had made friends with one of his classmates, even if he was not allowed to tell anyone about it in anyway.


	8. Progress Of a kind

Review of Reviews:

**(If you want to get straight to the story skip to the italicised writing)**

Hi all, This section is something that may become a more routine thing, as the guest reviews I get raise good points that I can't reply to privately, so they have to be done here:

This review raised the question of why the seal did not cover Sasuke's chest as well as altering the girls face? as well as why no-one in the general populous of Konoha knew that Saki was a girl before the massacre?

The seal question: Well my reasoning is that it is much harder to alter something as large as a set of breasts into a boys chest, remember that these changes are not only visual but also able to stand up to cursory touches. The seal is using Saki's chakra to power the jutsu, so the chakra requirements to power such a change would be far to large for a young girls system to handle and still be able to use chakra for anything else. Therefore, presented with not being a ninja or having to hide her chest, it is no real surprise what Saki in my story chose.

The before the massacre question: Two things, firstly I believe that the clans in Konoha would be a lot more secretive then people seem to imagine, even in the anime. The idea that Neji airs the truth about the caged bird seal, something that seems to be present on 75% of the Hyuuga clan members and also seems to be the basis of the distrust and hate between the two branches, and everyone that is not a experienced ninja seems shocked and appalled is somewhat the proof to this.

So if the clans are that secretive about something that I'm sure the branch Hyuuga would love to be known across Konoha, then the idea that the heirs to a clan are protected somewhat from public knowledge is not a surprise, especially when everyone would be praising the work of the actual heir to the clan who was already a ninja by that point. This links with my second point which is the attempted kidnap of Hinata by Kumo. Now if the idea of a female clan heir would have been difficult for a man like Fugaku to stomach before that event, then the idea that if news of Saki got out then kidnapers might come after her to get their own sharingans outside of Fugaku's control would be the decision maker in the man's head. Of course the other Uchiha would know, but they would follow the clan head's orders regardless of their own opinions on the idea and thus a suitable deception in emplaced and people are revealed to the idea of a second boy Uchiha heir, anyone who had heard otherwise would quickly be hounded to change their story in a way that made them look like it was an attempt to embarrass the clan.

This plan would have only have been temporary of course, until the girl was old enough to protect herself and it could be revealed, but then the massacre happened and those that knew the truth were dead, apart from Itachi. The Hokage would know along with a small set of trusted ninja that would have been guards, aids and carers to the young Uchiha, but that would be the limit to those that know, making Naruto unique as the only one of his age group to know.

End of Review Section:

_Previously on The Shade of Uzu:_

_Turning the key she produced from her pouch, she opened the door whilst calling out once more. "Goodnight Naruto, and I will see you at the same training grounds tomorrow after the academy, you've already proved more use than those buffoons that claim to be our teachers." and with that said she was gone, leaving Naruto alone in the courtyard, his mind still in a whirl from the huge influx of information that he had taken in during the last couple of hours. Finally deciding to move back home, he supposed there was one good thing about the evening, at least he had made friends with one of his classmates, even if he was not allowed to tell anyone about it in anyway._

Chapter 8: Progress of a Kind

The next week passed relatively quickly Naruto, a slow routine developing as he did so. After the surprise concerning Saki, he had decided not to try and befriend another person in his class until he had worked out how he stood in regards to the disguised girl. He also had a new project to work on, as after the first night the two had spent training together, using Taijutsu only of course for now though Saki had shown an interest in learning how to use a blade like Naruto, he had asked to have another look at her seal so that he could copy it down. She had smirked before asking if he was just trying to get her topless again, leaving him red in the face before agreeing to show him, shifting the top of her t-shirt so that he could see it, and grabbing parchment and pen, he set to work tracing the lines and squiggles that made up the seal in front of him.

It had taken half an hour to copy it to his satisfaction, and afterwards Saki had insisted that he owed her for her patience regarding that little session, something that he had acknowledged easily enough. She had yet to call in that favour, though he was sure she still had something in mind, it was just like her not to tell him what she had planned. The seal had taken up most of Naruto's free time when he wasn't with Sasuke or training by himself, and he still had no idea about how most of it worked without destroying Saki's chakra system. He had gone to the shinobi library after asking the Hokage about seals and being pointed in that direction, though the books that he could borrow as a non ninja were of minimal help beyond teaching him the rules of sealing, something Kage hadn't known about at all.

Speaking of Kage, he had received a letter from the man, through the courier service that ran through the elemental nations. He thought the girl he had found was actually an Uzumaki, but she was also a grass genin and seemed to be a sensor, as she was able to detect his presence even when he was using his shadow techniques, and according to her his chakra was too dark for him to be trusted, whatever that meant. She had also obviously informed her superiors, as after the first two attempts at contact she had been placed under guard. Kage had said he would make one more attempt, before returning to Konoha, with the idea of taking Naruto over the Christmas period to grass, in the hope that Naruto might have more luck in talking with her.

Whilst not adverse to the idea, Naruto knew that it would be fun to persuade the Hokage to allow them to travel from Konoha with him having only just returned there. But for now, it was all just hypothetical anyways. Returning to reality, he looked up from his work to look across at Saki, who was lying on the grass near him reading her book, one that she had claimed was of a series that her mother had liked when she was alive. She obviously enjoyed it as well, as when they had finished training for the day she had asked if he would just sit with her whilst she read, something he didn't mind as he had been simply going to work on the seal once more anyways, so the location didn't particularly matter. He now had more than a dozen copies of the seal, each of which bar the original was covered in his workings and scribblings.

She smiled at something in the book, before casting a look at him, locking eyes with him. Neither shifted for a moment, though Saki's smile didn't fade in the slightest. After another moment she looked away, and tried to move past the situation with a question. "Naruto-kun, I know you disappeared for two years, and that you obviously trained under a teacher in that time... Do you think he would be able to train me in some things?" she paused then rapidly continued before Naruto could say anything "Nothing that is specifically related to your clan or anything, but what with my brother out there, I need to get stronger much faster if I am to be able to beat him when the time comes..."

Over the last week, they had tentatively discussed Saki's brother, and of course, the massacre that he had caused. Saki revealed that she was still receiving counciling once a month from Ino's father on the subject, but it didn't seem to be helping in the slightest. It obviously made her vulnerable to be revealing such a weakness to him, so Naruto did his best to make sure she would not think he might take advantage of it at some point. All of the talking seemed to have helped though, as she could now discuss her brother in vague terms without suffering from the old flashbacks, though they would still catch her at the most random of times, freezing up at the sound of child laughing or at a pattern of leaves on the ground.

Naruto liked to think that he was helping her through it, but with how broken she was after each event, he wondered whether trying to get her to open up was making the situation better or worse. He decided to break her from her memories with some good news, worst comes to worst he would have to strong arm Kage into doing it, but he doubted he would have to get that far. "Of course he will be able to teach you somethings, especially if you still wish to use a blade. My only warning would be that you would have to tell him..." She shook herself for a moment before shrugging. "I expected as much, and besides if when he gets back he continues to train you, then I won't be left out if he is training me as well."

Naruto didn't comment, but both understood that to be the real reason that Saki wished to train under Kage, with the number of her adoring fans amongst the shinobi populace, it would not have been too hard for her to get training from them instead, but she would have to do that as Sasuke, a persona she had finally managed to admit that she did not enjoy keeping up, even if it did make things easier round the village. He nodded slowly before collecting his work together, night was falling, and he still had to get Saki home. Standing, he heard Saki follow suit with a sigh of disappointment. She had long stopped pretending to dislike having to hang around him, though she sometimes continued to complain in jest.

Sealing his work away, he turned round as Saki stepped forward, slowly hugging herself to him as he once more activated his shadow teleportation technique, appearing in the entranceway of Saki's renovated house. As Naruto tried to pull away, Saki looked up at him whilst pulling him back into the hug, her silent plea causing him to sigh in fake duress before returning the hug. They stayed like that for a minute, before finally she pulled back smiling at him. "Naruto-kun, I have a request to make of you..." as she said it, she pulled him further into the house, so it couldn't be too bad he presumed.

Time skip two weeks

That little request had paved the way for Naruto's transition into the uchiha house for three nights every week. Saki had requested that he stay in the guest bedroom, which was next to hers and connected by a ensuite bathroom. The reason had quickly become clear as to why this request had been made, after Naruto had reluctantly agreed and returned to his house for bed gear, the two had stayed up by the fire in the lounge drinking hot chocolate and talking quietly until Saki had fallen asleep on his shoulder, smile firmly on her face. He had simply sat there for a while, enjoying the presence of someone his own age who was completely comfortable with his presence. Finally, he had shifted himself up and had carried the girl to her bed, tucking her in before returning to his own temporary room.

He had been asleep for barely an hour before he heard the screams and cries from next door. Rushing through the ensuite, katana ready, he found Saki in the throes of a nightmare, tossing and turning in her bed, crying out intelligibly to someone. Upon waking her, she realised who he was before throwing herself onto him crying pitifully. It came out that she got the nightmares every couple of nights, and after them she would not be able to sleep any further that night. She had been hoping that the presence of Naruto nearby would have help, but it didn't seem to have any further effect. As such they had talked some more, Saki revealing that she hadn't even told Ino's dad anything about the nightmares, thinking that they made her seem even weaker then she already was.

Naruto had comforted her for a while longer, and without her realising it, she had fallen back asleep in his embrace. With no way out of the situation without waking the girl, he had resigned himself to being beaten in the morning by the girl and had fallen to sleep himself. The two had awoken to Saki's alarm clock going off for the academy, neither having stirred in the night at all. This was all Saki had needed to prove to herself that Naruto was a soother of her nightmares, and therefore had asked him to stay with her from now on. Naruto had eventually compromised with every other night, arguing that once they had graduated he might not be available every night and that they had to try and get Saki through it herself.

According to Saki it was having some effect, the nightmares came less frequently, even when he wasn't there, and she was sometimes able to get back to sleep after waking. The other reason that Naruto had argued this was that he knew that Kage would be taking him out of the village during the next year at least once, if not several times, and that he certainly wouldn't let Saki travel with them at first, not that the Hokage would allow two such high value targets out of the village unsupervised regardless.

Though that would not be for a while it seemed, judging by the coded information that Kage had put in his latest letter to Naruto, that he had received the day failed to make any progress in regards to the Kusa genin, Kage had turned his attention to rumours of a group of slavers that claimed to be able to give their clients bloodline users of various varieties, one of which sounded like it could belong to the sister clan of Whirlpool, the suitably named Oni clan, who were able to summon and control various small and minor demons to serve them in battle and on missions.

With this news it became clear that Naruto would have to do some original training of his own whilst Kage was occupied, as he had nearly completed all of the exercises that the man had left him when they parted company on the Land of Fire border. That was something that he could ask the Hokage about he was sure, a man of his experience would surely be able to help him with some of the stuff that he was struggling with. But for now he decided to think about that particular idea later, the academy bell signalling the end of the day had just rung, and seeing Sasuke disappear out of his seat and through the door made it clear that Saki wished to start training as soon as possible.

The reason for this was probably the days discussion, which happened to be on the prominent clans in the village, which obviously included a talk about the Uchiha clan. Several of her 'fans' had spent the session cooing to her alter ego about how tragic it was that his family was gone now, something that had brought the Uchiha very close to snapping at them for their lack of tact. But he had little to worry about in that regard, Saki would head over to the compound whilst loosing her pursuers and fans, changing into her female form when she was suitably hidden from prying eyes, and then heading over to the training grounds that they had pretty much claimed as their own well away from the village where any non-ninja might come snooping around.

So even with her initial lead in the race to the meeting point, it would take her most of an hour to reach the training ground in question, which was more then enough time for her to cool down some before he would be training with her. That was what he hoped anyways, the girl was now as fast as him without using her sharingan, and as such could do a fair amount of damage to him when pissed. She also felt very little guilt with the damage she did do after having discovered his healing ability, claiming that it was helping his ability get better after all which was always good. He suspected the reason was actually more because she still wished to make sure that he did not think of her as weak in anyway, though he wished she didn't feel the need to break his nose every time that she could in a spar to prove it.

With time on his side, he spent ten minutes observing the rest of his class slowly disappear into the normal Konoha hustle and bustle that was the main village, before taking off to the training ground at a slow leaping jog across the rooftops, which would allow him to think whilst moving without much risk of running into something by accident and embarrassing himself as he had seen several Sasuke fans do as they tried to pursue the boy on his way home. Little did Naruto know, that for once it was he that was being followed on his way to the training grounds, his relaxed senses and attitude lowering the sixth sense that Kage had tried to instill in him and making him oblivious of the threat that was stalking him.

A/N: Start of with a twofold apology I think today. Firstly the delay in the update, which is primarily due to writers block in addition to having to rewrite this section almost a dozen times as it was going down roads that I didn't particularly want to travel down. Which leads me onto my second apology, which is that this will probably be the last post on this story for a month or two, as this is actually where I am with the story that I have now deviated quite heavily from my original writings, which were a lot more happy go lucky and made Saki to much of a girly girl, something that now I look back on i dislike. So until i actually get some proper time to sit down and work out the next chapter, this is the cliff hangar I am going to leave you at, which is simply who is following Naruto? Have fun reading guys, and feel free to review, as you can see by the monster of a review at the top, I quite like answering questions people have on my work, helps me improve my backstory as well.


	9. Something you should know

_Previously on the Shades of Uzu:_

_So even with her initial lead in the race to the meeting point, it would take her most of an hour to reach the training ground in question, which was more then enough time for her to cool down some before he would be training with her. That was what he hoped anyways, the girl was now as fast as him without using her sharingan, and as such could do a fair amount of damage to him when pissed. She also felt very little guilt with the damage she did do after having discovered his healing ability, claiming that it was helping his ability get better after all which was always good. He suspected the reason was actually more because she still wished to make sure that he did not think of her as weak in anyway, though he wished she didn't feel the need to break his nose every time that she could in a spar to prove it._

_With time on his side, he spent ten minutes observing the rest of his class slowly disappear into the normal Konoha hustle and bustle that was the main village, before taking off to the training ground at a slow leaping jog across the rooftops, which would allow him to think whilst moving without much risk of running into something by accident and embarrassing himself as he had seen several Sasuke fans do as they tried to pursue the boy on his way home. Little did Naruto know, that for once it was he that was being followed on his way to the training grounds, his relaxed senses and attitude lowering the sixth sense that Kage had tried to instill in him and making him oblivious of the threat that was stalking him._

Chapter 9: Something you should know...

Sakura was having a bad week, if not a bad month if she was honest with herself. Since the arrival of the new kid in school at the start of the year she had been hoping to work her way into his good books, but his general attitude as well as what he had done to Kiba had given her more than enough reason to be a little bit more cautious about her approach than just to walk up to him and see if he remembered her, especially with her accidentally throwing a kunai at him when he had appeared in their class as he had. It was certainly difficult to remember the annoying but cheerful blond that had fawned over her when they were younger when she cast her eyes once more round a chimney that she had hidden behind when the black cloaked boy she was following looked round almost warily once more before setting off at what he obviously thought was a lazy place.

The reason she was following him was a bit selfish if she was being honest with herself, whilst the academy had started off well for her, scoring highly in the tests and being selected to be part of the top class in their year of the academy. whilst increasing her chances of being placed in a strong genin team when she graduated, she also found that many of her friends from pre-school were jealous of her now, not only because of the extra training and special teaching that she got as part of the class, but they also resented her for being able to crow at their meetings that she got to talk and train with the hottest boys of the class such as Kiba and of course Sasuke.

Eventually they slowly began to get meaner to her in their chats, and soon it became clear that she wasn't welcome in their friends group once more. This would have been fine with Sakura, she had known for a long time that children could be fickle over such things, if she hadn't already fallen out with her best friend in the class, Ino Yamanaka, over a stupid competition to try and get the Uchiha of all things. So there she was, a year and a half into the academy with the highest female score in the theoretical tests and all of a sudden friendless and alone whilst at school and outside school wasn't much better. She hid it well from her family, as they would just worry and put further pressure upon her.

This was why she was following her classmate as she was now, primarily to avoid having to go home too early so that she could pretend to her parents that she had been hanging out friends. The other reason was a little more a hopeful wish rather than anything else. She had to admit there was an almost niggling idea that the reason she was following him was that he would catch her doing so. As long as he didn't react to harshly it would give her the perfect opportunity to talk to him away from everyone else who might try and dissuade him from befriending the 'nerdy big head' as she had heard some of her former friends refer to her as recently. It certainly would be nice to talk to someone as a close friend again...

Leaping off once more to try and keep up with Naruto, she found them leaping off to the northern most edge of Konoha, far beyond she had been during her life thus far, going to the right hand side of the Hokage mountain and into the training grounds that made up that area of Konoha. Passing through some of the closer training areas Sakura found it harder and harder to stay hidden whilst Naruto passed through, and she was almost certain he knew someone was following him by now. But they reached the seeming destination without incident and Naruto was stood in the large open clearing pacing around and doing some basic exercises whilst Sakura watched on silently from the sidelines.

Normally she would leave at this point, she had been following people for long enough to know that being caught watching them training was worse than just whilst they were travelling around, but something about the exercises he was doing, the way that they flowed so fluidly from one stance to the next with Naruto seeming to have to make an effort entranced her in a way that just drew her in. She was about to risk everything, break from where she was hiding and rush out to him, damn the consequences, when she felt someone grab her roughly and pin her right arm up her back. She was about to struggle and try and shout for help when there was the feeling of something cold and sharp placed against her neck, causing her to freeze in place, not even daring to breath.

Naruto continued his exercises, oblivious to her plight as she and whoever was holding her stood there in silence for a moment, before she built up the courage to try and speak. "Please, I didn't mean any harm..." She cut off with a pained groan as her arm was twisted painfully a little further behind her back, but Naruto's head darted to where they were stood, stiffening before he disappeared in a flicker of speed. Sakura wasn't sure she should be relieved or even more worried as Naruto spoke from behind her and the arm lock lessened slightly. "You know, when I sent you a message about the fact that I was being followed and that we needed to come up with a plan, this wasn't quite what I meant..."

There was silence other than the figure holding her shifting slightly before Naruto spoke, this time more insistently. "No, let her go, don't make me force you off her, we give her a chance to explain herself before anything else, and definitely no 'kunai to the neck' thing on one of my classmates, that is a definite no no, even if she did try and throw a kunai at me first day back." That brought a blush to Sakura's face even as the figure let go of her hand and removed the kunai whilst pushing her forwards against the tree that she had been hiding behind, she knew that would come up at some point. Turning around, she found herself looking at Naruto and a girl about his height with short black hair and dark eyes in a short length Kimono that seemed to have been made for battle as well as normal wear, if the ease of movement and the silence they had snuck up on them was anything to go by.

The girl seemed to be fuming, though was restraining herself from speaking at this point for some reason. Naruto seemed to sense this tension and stepped forwards, smiling politely at Sakura in what he obviously hoped was an easy way to diffuse the situation. "Don't mind her Sakura, shes an old friend of mine that is really protective of me and well with you sneaking around following me shes a bit jumpy." His smile faded a bit and he looked at her seriously for a moment before continuing further. "Now, about that, care to explain what you were doing?" Sakura gulped before bowing her head in what she hoped was perceived in an apologetic and respectful manner, Naruto by himself she could deal with but it was the protective psycho she was a lot more worried about. "Well Naruto-san, this is going to sound a bit weird but please hear me out..."

Naruto Uzumaki:

Looking down at the now dozing girl in front of him, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head in an amused manner at the story he had just been told. As reasons for stalking go, the idea of doing so simply to pass the time in order to fool her family was not something he would have expected ever from the girl he remembered in the old days. There was a rather unlady like grunt from his right where Saki was stood leaning against a tree, scowl still on her face. "I'm glad you find this whole thing amusing Naruto-kun, considering it all nearly went to hell because of your chivalry. If you hadn't been so quick off the mark with your bullshit about me being Kage's god daughter who has been put in charge of watching you whilst he was gone I don't dare think of the possibilities, what would have happened if she somehow drew the connection to Sasuke?"

Naruto shook his head even as he stood to stretch out his muscles. "Well I apologise 'Kari' but that was the best I had at the time and to be honest, if we get it cleared with the Hokage and Kage, its a perfect cover for you to use, nobody would question you walking around then." That removed the scowl off her face and she thought about it a moment longer before nodding approvingly. "Yes, that may in fact be for the best, and it will stop Sakura-chan here digging any further than she should for the near future. What are you going to do in regards to her anyways?" He decided not to comment on the familiar form of address Saki used despite her seeming dislike for the girl and instead sent her a questioning look that caused her to shake her head and chuckle.

"Don't give me that look baka, I know you well enough by now, I could see your heart strings being plucked as she told her little sob story." He stopped grinning at this and threw a disbelieving look over at her at the implication. "Are you just implying to leave her here and pretend this never happened? Would you have wanted me to do that to you when we had our little chat?" She flinched and he regretted bringing it up that way but her anti social tendencies was something he needed to start helping her with sooner or later regardless and this was as good a time as any. When she spoke next it was much more quietly and there was almost an uncertain tremble in her tone. "This is nothing like that... and you wouldn't, not after all this..."

He was across the clearing in an instant, wrapping his arms around her tightly as she quivered underneath him. She took several deep breaths and slowly stopped trembling as her head slowly rested on his shoulders. "Baka, don't say stuff like that, you know what happens." He grinned, the previously insulting term had become almost affectionate these days and he had to admit he did enjoy the closeness that they now shared with each other. He leaned back slightly to look at her and she did the same with a small smile of her own. They both just stayed there for a moment, and then just as he thought she was leaning forwards she looked away to the sleeping Sakura and the smile changed into something... wistful almost.

"I think you are right, we better get her home soon otherwise her parents will probably panic and call the ANBU to search for her." He disentangled with a sigh, but nodded and headed over to pick the girl up gently. "That's all well and good, but unless you know where she lives we are going to have to wake her up to get her home." There was silence as he hefted the girl up bridal style and turning he saw Saki looking away from him, slight blush on her face. "Promise not to judge me to much?" He nodded even as he worked out what her question meant and he started to put together the dots in his head even as he worked out that she wasn't watching him and couldn't see his head movement and spoke quietly. "Of course not Saki-chan, you know I will never judge you."

She looked at him thankfully and then nodded slightly "I know where she lives, and yes before you ask, my feelings for her are a little more than platonic in nature." He nodded and simply walked up to her and leaned his head against hers, much to her obvious surprise but it was the only way he could physically relax her with the girl in his arms. He smiled reassuringly at her "Nothing to be ashamed of Saki, your heart is your heart after all and you should never try to..." He cut off as she suddenly leaned forward and kissed him square on the lips, her eyes closed as she seemed to be trying to pour everything she had into the kiss they were sharing and honestly, Naruto had to admit that he was not at all adverse to the new feeling. After twenty or so seconds they broke away, both flushed and grinning before Naruto looked down worriedly at Sakura and then back to Saki.

****"But Sak..." She cut him off by holding a finger to his lips and smiling brightly at him. "My heart is my heart, and I chose to listen to it this time. If anything your concern about Sakura and I just proved that my feelings are suitably placed." She turned away and jumped up to the lowest tree branch before turning her head to grin at him once more. "Are you coming Naruto-kun?" And then she was gone into the trees and Naruto cursed himself out of his daze and hurried to follow, trying his best to ensure that he didn't wake the girl in his arms as he did so, the giant grin on his face never fading at the memory of what had just happened...

**A/N: Honestly? I am not particularly happy with where this chapter has gone, its a little too fluffy and touchy feely but that is where the story took me and I am in the habit of sticking to where they take me. This chapter was to primarily introduce my version of Sakura, one who went through academy without the crutch of having a fawning boy to keep her spirits up and allow her to take her frustrations out on. This creates a more self reliant but lonely Sakura who tries harder at the academy for her own reasons and isn't quite as obsessed with Sasuke. Also, the chapter shows some more of Sasukes insecurities, and these aren't just because i want Naruto to appear the shining knight who is saving the wounded damsels, but they will play a big part later on in the story (Think Orochimaru and the cursed seals effects.) Well, I hope you guys like it, the next chapter will move very quickly through the next couple of months to the holiday period where Kage will make his reappearance... Hope to get reviews from you soon Ya Ne! **


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